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Booker wants to play his whole career in Phoenix

Jennifer Stewart / USA TODAY Sports

Devin Booker is just one season into a promising NBA career, but he's already intent on playing the rest of it with the team that drafted him a year ago.

"I love it in Phoenix and I want to be one of those guys that gets drafted by one team and stays there the whole time," the Suns guard told SLAM's Jeramie McPeek. "You know, they turn around the franchise, and they get love for that in that city like they're the mayor. … People still wear Steve Nash jerseys here. That's definitely something I want to be."

Booker and the Suns have a ways to go before they even sniff the success and magnetism of Nash's mid-aughts squads, but the pieces may well be in place. The 19-year-old averaged 13.8 points and 2.6 assists in his debut season, and only improved as the campaign went along. He put up 19.2 points and 4.1 assists after the All-Star break, on his way to All-Rookie first team honors.

The Suns struggled to a 23-59 record amidst injury and inexperience, but that enabled them to nab high-upside forwards Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss in this summer's draft. They'll join a young core headlined by Booker, point guard Eric Bledsoe, center Alex Len, and swingman T.J. Warren.

That core isn't poised to contend any time soon, but Booker said he's in it for the long haul. He envisions himself one day being inducted into the Suns' Ring of Honor, as Nash was during Booker's first NBA home game last October.

"It’s bigger than basketball," Booker said of Nash's influence. "He's affected so many lives, not only here in America, but in Canada, too, and all over the world. It's just unbelievable what you can do, just playing this sport … and at the same time, earn everybody's respect to get all of those Hall of Famers back here to support him."

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