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By JORDAN KAYE
Cronkite News

LAS VEGAS — Devin Booker had game point.

Kyrie Irving, who was the designated passer and had his driver standing on the sideline, wanted to go home. Kevin Durant, who thought he had won the one-on-one “king of the court” game during the Team USA minicamp with three points, not realizing they were going to four, didn’t care how long it took, as long as he won.

Durant walked over to guard Booker, yelling on his way.

“I want Book.”

“I’ve got a flight to catch,” Booker told Durant as the two-time NBA Finals MVP started clapping his hands in the youngster’s face. “Get outta here.”

Booker got the ball from Irving and faked a turnaround jumper to the right before taking two dribbles to the left and heaving up a one-handed floater over Durant’s long, outreached right arm.

No dice.

Durant went on to win the game on the next possession, connecting on a deep jumper over Paul George. The shot marked the end of the 2018 Team USA minicamp as Durant, George, Booker and Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner, who were also a part of the “king of the court” type game, high-fived and said their likely goodbyes for the summer.

But the two day event in Vegas last week solidified one thing: Devin Booker didn’t get into that game by accident.

He’s one of the guys.

“It really hasn’t,” Booker said when asked if it’s hit him that he belongs with this group. “I still don’t think I’m one of those guys and until I participate, get a gold medal. That’s always been a dream of mine, a goal of mine.”

The Team USA minicamp is an early step in the process of securing a U.S. men’s basketball team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Thirty-five players received invitations to the mini-camp and Team USA begins preparations for the inaugural FIBA Basketball World Cup next year.

Though the magnitude of his participation may not have fully reached Booker, it hit everybody else well before they packed into UNLV’s Mendenhall Center.

“Devin’s an unbelievable player and belongs,” Detroit Pistons forward Blake Griffin said. “And I think he knows that. There’s not a guy here who you look around and you kind of think like maybe he’s nervous or anything like that. He can hold his own against anyone.

“He’s in such an unbelievable position at such a young age. He’s primed to be doing this for 15 years.”

Griffin relates to Booker more than most. After just two full seasons in the NBA, the 2010-11 Rookie of the Year was one of 12 players players selected to the 2012 USA Basketball Olympic team.

Although Griffin never played in London due to a torn meniscus (ultimately foregoing his spot to 2012 No. 1 pick Anthony Davis), his time spent practicing and watching the superstars he was able to call teammates for a short while was far more valuable than a few Olympic games.

“That time just in training camp and before going over there was huge just to see other guys work, just to learn from them and to even listening to conversations,” Griffin said. “I think all that’s really important but I definitely took advantage and I think (Devin) will too.”

Griffin was often grouped with Booker when the team split into groups of four for shooting drills and five-on-five, king of the court games. The 21-year old Phoenix Suns guard, who was the youngest member of the minicamp by almost four years, was a sponge to it all.

He soaked in information from the play and leadership of Griffin and Durant, and from the conversations he had with Villanova coach Jay Wright and Golden State Warriors assistant  Mike Brown. Both are Team USA assistants under San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and both pulled Booker aside at the minicamp.

Brown has respected and admired Booker’s game from afar ever since the Suns drafted the Kentucky player in 2015. The former Cleveland Cavaliers head man knows he, and the other coaches, probably won’t have many opportunities to watch Booker practice and talk to him first-hand, so they took full advantage of doing so this week.

“To hear a perspective from a different coach or opposing coach of what I think about his game based off how we defend him or how I think he could be a little bit more effective, sometimes that’s a good thing,” Brown said.

“Now when they go back to their own teams, just being in an environment like this, being around these types of players and a coach like Gregg Popovich only enhances their ability to communicate the right message whether it’s verbally or it’s physically just by mannerisms.”

While watching from the baseline as Booker was going against George, Oladipo or Turner, players including Durant, Irving and even Carmelo Anthony (who retired from international basketball in 2016 but was in attendance Friday) constantly shouted words of encouragement to the lone Phoenix Suns player on the count.

After Booker shorted a fadeaway jumper over Oladipo, Irving applaud the youngster: “Nice shot, Book,” he said. Durant, too, said similar things throughout as well.

In Phoenix, Booker has been widely regarded as the best player on his team for most of his NBA career. In Vegas, he wasn’t. Instead, he was able to learn, making the most of the opportunity to constantly go at and defend the best in the world in a relaxed environment.

“These guys are in a position I’m trying to get to — perennial all-stars, superstars in this league, have gold medals,” Booker said. “So it’s everything that I want to be so I listen to them and try to get better everyday.”

His Suns teammate, Tyson Chandler, who was a member of the 2012 Gold Medal team, has talked to him about Team USA before, but Booker said he wasn’t expecting the invitation, just hoping for it.

Booker has also had conversations with Jerry Colangelo. The former Phoenix Suns owner who is now the managing director of USA Basketball said he “may have mentioned that a year or two ago” the reality that Booker could get the invitation he got this summer.

“We were at some event and I just like his game and enjoy watching him play,” Colangelo said. “I think he’s got a great future ahead of him in the NBA and quite possibly with USA Basketball.”

Colangelo has watched young players like Griffin and Davis use the USA Basketball experience to vault their careers and believes that it can do the same for Booker.

“Someone once told me a long time ago be a good listener, learn from the people around you who have done it. And I think he’s a good listener,” Colangelo said. “I think this experience for him is the best. To be around guys that have done it already and you can really learn.”

Booker, though, seemed to fully understand that.

On Friday, Duke coach and former Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim and St. John’s coach Chris Mullin were all in attendance. The number of combined All-Stars and Hall of Famers in the room was too high to count.

And though Booker didn’t contribute to either of those numbers, most in the room believe he will. And he wants to talk to them to ensure that.

“You have basketball legends just walking around the gym, and there’s plenty of them,” Booker said. “They’re here to give us advice, they’re here to help us out. Me being a student of the game, I have listen to them, I have to ask questions.”

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