Inside Devin Booker’s switch to ‘family number,’ honoring father with No. 15

Melvin Booker yearned to wear his father’s old No. 12 jersey after making Moss Point High School boys’ varsity basketball team as a sophomore in 1987. Unfortunately, he was a powerless underclassman, and a senior teammate already wore No. 12 at the Mississippi school. Instead, Booker asked for the closest available number to his father’s old jersey number, which ended up being No. 15.

That No. 15 became a “family number” for Booker, his younger siblings and even his son, Devin Booker, during his youth.

Roughly four decades later, Melvin cried on Father’s Day after Devin, now a five-time All-Star guard for the Phoenix Suns, told him he was changing his jersey from No. 1 to No. 15 to honor him.

“That’s when I started the 15 thing,” Melvin Booker told Andscape. “Fifteen became a family number. My sister played in it. My brother played in it, and Devin used to play in it as a kid. …

“I don’t know if you saw that video where he revealed it to me? That was my first time seeing it in person. And a lot of things went through my head from his childhood to now being in the arena and hearing them say, ‘From Kentucky, No. 15, Devin Booker.’ It gives me chills.”

Devin Booker became the Suns’ all-time leading scorer while wearing No. 1 from 2015 to 2026. If it had been up to him, however, he would have worn No. 15 dating back to his days at Moss Point High and upon arriving in Phoenix. But just like his father, Booker was blocked by teammates with seniority from nabbing the jersey number he coveted.

Devin Booker, 30, grew up in Grandville, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is also where Melvin Booker once played in the Continental Basketball Association and met Devin’s mother, Veronica.

Devin spent summers growing up with his father in Moss Point. Melvin showed his son an NBA blueprint by playing for the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors before competing overseas in Italy, Turkey and Russia, where Devin was old enough to attend his father’s games.

Melvin’s professional basketball career ended in Italy with Olimpia Milano during the 2007-08 season at the age of 36 while wearing No. 15. In the summer of 2011, Melvin became an assistant coach at Moss Point High School, his alma mater in Mississippi, where Devin moved to play for him.

“Devin was able to catch the back end of my career, and that’s where he found his love for the game,” Melvin Booker, 54, said.

Melvin Booker, a 6-foot-2 point guard, averaged 28 points per game as a high school senior at Moss Point during the 1989-1990 season and received All-America recognition. Later, Moss Point honored the former University of Missouri star by retiring his No. 15 jersey.

While Melvin wanted his son to wear No. 15 at Moss Point, he said a state rule prohibited retired jerseys from being worn again.

So instead, Devin starred at Moss Point and became a McDonald’s All-American while wearing No. 2. His number was retired by the high school on Dec. 10, 2022.

“We thought about bringing it out of the rafters and allowing him to play with it in high school,” Melvin Booker said. “There was something that if we take it out of retirement, we can’t re-retire it. That’s what it was, but that’s why he never went back to 15 [at Moss Point].”

Devin Booker signed with the University of Kentucky in 2014. Upon arrival, junior center Willie Caulie-Stein was already wearing No. 15 and sophomore guard Aaron Harrison wore No. 2. So, Booker opted to wear No. 1 despite having no real connection to it. After one successful season in Lexington, the Suns drafted the 6-5 shooting guard with the 13th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft.

When Devin Booker arrived in Phoenix, Suns forward Marcus Morris was wearing No. 15, so he continued wearing No. 1. Though the Suns traded Morris to the Detroit Pistons on July 9, 2015, Booker had to stick with his original choice of No. 1, which not only became a hot seller in Phoenix but among NBA fans for years. In the 2025-26 season, Booker’s Suns jersey ranked 13th on the NBA’s top-selling jerseys list.

“Marcus Morris had 15. I was just a rookie. He was in year 12,” Devin Booker said. “In college, Willie Caulie-Stein had it at Kentucky. I have been after [15] for a minute.”

Changing a jersey number is easier said than done for an NBA player with longevity on one team. Players staying with the same franchise must submit a change request to the league by a specific deadline — typically around March 15 of the preceding season — to help uniform makers manage retail inventory, according to FanDuel Research.

Devin Booker said he first attempted to change it after his 10th season. He also actually wore No. 15 for USA Basketball when he won Olympic gold medals in 2020 and 2024. Ultimately, he felt “it was a good time” to get it done heading into his 12th season.

“I just wanted to honor my father. It was always the number I wanted growing up,” Devin Booker said. “I never really had a real story to be No. 1 other than 15 was taken. So, I feel like it was just a good time to do it.”

Devin Booker surprised his father by giving him a new No. 15 Suns jersey on Father’s Day, June 21. Melvin Booker was at a loss for words when he received the news.

“That was a very rare moment where I got to see some emotion out of him when I told him I was changing the number,” Devin Booker said. “He’s always been the blueprint for me, my mother, too. Both are hardworking individuals. Independent individuals. Don’t come for much. Don’t expect much from anybody else. Just handle business.”

The elder Booker said he used to arrive at his son’s games after the pregame introductions. Now that Devin is wearing No. 15, he gets there in time to hear the public address announcer call his name.

“If you know Devin, you know about his cars [collection] and stuff, you know he has a lot of respect for vintage and old stuff,” Melvin Booker said. “And I’m not surprised he went back to 15, because that’s what it used to be and that’s what I was used to him wearing as a kid.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are the only NBA franchise to have retired two jersey numbers for the same player — Kobe Bryant, Devin Booker’s mentor, who wore Nos. 8 and 24. Philadelphia 76ers star LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, wore No. 23 and No. 6 with the Lakers and could follow in Bryant’s footsteps.

Considering Booker is already widely viewed as the Suns’ greatest all-time player and led the franchise to the 2021 NBA Finals, he will likely have two jerseys retired in Phoenix one day, too.

Now wearing No. 15, Booker believes the Suns are a positive work in progress. He entered Friday averaging 25.5 points, 5 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. The Suns opened the season 1-5 before winning four of their past five games.

While competing for a title is a daunting task for today’s Suns, Booker still dreams of returning to the Finals and winning.

“We got to win games,” Booker said. “Ain’t no easy road in this league. A relatively new team. There are going to be some learning curves. But we have a lot of like-minded people on the same path. …

“I just want to win big. Win it all. That’s the last thing I can check in the league to feel like I completed it.”

Luckily for Booker, he finally checked the box of wearing his family’s No. 15 in a Suns uniform.