For Suns’ Devin Booker, new number opens new chapter in search of better ending

PHOENIX — The Father’s Day video posted Sunday stretched nearly nine minutes, and it was awesome. Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker walked with his dad in the Flagstaff High School gymnasium toward a rack where seven jerseys hung. All revealed Booker’s new jersey number — 15.

Melvin Booker appeared touched. He had worn 15 during his college days at Missouri, where he was an All-American guard as a senior. “I don’t even know what to say, son,” Melvin Booker said in the video. Booker told him that he had always considered his dad the blueprint for basketball success.

“A new chapter, to honor you, everything that you’ve done for me, I’m excited about it,” Booker said, adding that he felt like he was about to start the second half of his career.

Dr. J wore 6 for all 11 of his NBA years with the Philadelphia 76ers. Larry Bird will forever be 33 in Boston green. Reggie Miller and 31 are linked in Indiana, as are Dirk Nowitzki and 41 in Dallas and Tim Duncan and 21 in San Antonio. But times change.

Booker wore No. 1 in college at Kentucky and for his first 11 seasons with the Suns. At Mortgage Matchup Center in downtown Phoenix, his jersey was always the dominant fashion choice for fans young and old. It showed how much respect they have for Booker, who has expressed a desire to spend his entire career in the desert. A number change won’t alter that affection.

But that wasn’t the most interesting part of Sunday’s announcement video. It was those first three words — a new chapter.

The Suns last season were a nice story, rebuilding and making the playoffs in coach Jordan Ott’s first year. But the main storyline since their dismissal — a quick four games against the Oklahoma City Thunder — has focused on Booker and his disappointing postseason performance. No one really knows how to explain it.

Just a few seasons earlier, Booker had been the best 2-guard in the league, a terror in the playoffs who had finished fourth in 2022 MVP voting. Since then, he has changed — still a star, but different. Always wanting to make the right play, Booker passed up shots in the playoffs, trying to set up teammates when the Suns needed his scoring.

1 🔄 15 pic.twitter.com/eDZUwvfrxT

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) June 21, 2026

Stars who have changed numbers in the past, while not changing teams, have often done so to mark a transition. Twenty years ago, Kobe Bryant switched from 8 to 24 after his 10th season, one that ended with Bryant memorably taking only three second-half shots in a playoff elimination loss to Phoenix. The number change acknowledged Bryant’s roots but also symbolized a new chapter of his career.

“No. 8 has been with me a while, obviously,” Bryant said at the time. “I just felt it was time to move on and do something different. When I came back from Italy (growing up) and I came to the States to play, the first number I selected was 24. It is kind of a new beginning for me, and that’s what the second half of my career is all about.”

(Wise-cracked Randy Hill of Foxsports.com: “Kobe wore 24 in high school, but skeptics believe he’s making the change to put himself one up on Michael Jordan,” who famously wore 23 for nearly all of his storied NBA career.)

Also in 2006, Suns star Amar’e Stoudemire ditched No. 32 for No. 1. The explosive forward was coming off a season in which he played only three games because of his recovery from microfracture knee surgery. Stoudemire initially told The Arizona Republic the change was for “spiritual reasons” that he wanted to keep private. But it was clear the switch also represented a fresh start and return to the dominant force Stoudemire expected to be. (In 2024, the Suns hung Stoudemire’s 32 in the rafters as part of his Ring of Honor induction.)

For his first four years with the Indiana Pacers, star Paul George wore 24 to honor Bryant. But in 2014, he petitioned the league about a switch to 13, partially because he liked the idea of a PG-13 nickname, something basketball personality Bill Simmons had first suggested.

“That’s got a ring to it, right?” George asked the audience during an appearance that year on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.

“It’s perfect,” Kimmel said.

At Flagstaff High, Booker, 29,  said he felt like he had chased 15 his whole career. He told his dad he had tried to wear the number at Kentucky, but older teammate Willie Cauley-Stein already had it. Same thing when the Suns drafted Booker in 2015; it belonged to forward Marcus Morris. Booker instead chose No. 1 and over time became an All-Star, as well as the organization’s career scoring leader. Safe to say that worked out well. (Booker did wear 15 with Team USA during the 2024 Olympics.)

But a new chapter is here. The second half of a stellar career is set to begin. For Booker, the face of the franchise, one who still dreams of winning a championship, it has to go beyond a jersey number.