Within the confines of a basketball floor, NBA rookie Devin Booker’s style is as delicate as a butterfly’s wings. The 25-year-old Phoenix Suns guard moves with a fluidity and speed that would have made Diaghilev pleased. When he shoots, the basketball appears to cooperate—as balls appear to do for all great players—before the parabola is completed through the basket (Booker won the NBA Three-Point Contest in 2018). While the public is accustomed to watching him gliding over a basketball court, Booker’s home digs may show an even keener understanding of physical detail and the flow of bodies in space.
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“I consider myself fortunate to be surrounded by people with great style,” Booker said. “Whenever I walk into my friends’ homes, I’m like a sponge, asking questions and absorbing what I see.” That intrigue is now on full show in the basketball player’s slick Arizona mansion.
The modern single-story residence has spectacular views of the neighboring Phoenix Mountains Preserve, as if they were created by the Taos Society of Artists. In reality, it was the drama, the instant link to the surrounding nature, that initially drew Booker in. “When someone approaches the house, it’s deceiving because it appears there’s not much going on,” Booker says of the property, which was sold to him in 2019 by his real estate agent brother, Davon Wade. “However, when people enter and see the pool, yard, and all the adjoining rooms, they are taken aback.” “I love how a seemingly simple house can still be a big reveal.”
While Booker is largely regarded as one of the NBA’s brightest rising stars, his poor beginnings tell a different narrative. “When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, I’d close my eyes before bed and imagine what my house might one day look like,” says the man who grew up in Grand Rapids.
“The size or shape of the home would be different depending on the night, but the interiors were always the same: modern with a bit of nostalgia in the mix.” Booker is no longer required to close his eyes. That idea has become a reality thanks to the assistance of L.A.-based AD100 business Clements Design.
“All you need to know about Devin’s eye for design is in the way he dresses,” says Kathleen Clements, who helped design the home with her son and creative partner, Tommy Clements.
“Everything he wears is cool and stylish, but it all looks very natural.” It’s not something that everyone can do.” Clements and her team, in partnership with L.A.-based Karan Brady Interiors, furnished the new home with unique furniture that can accommodate bodies up to seven feet tall while working within the original architectural context.
“Devin enjoys entertaining and spending time with his family and friends.” “It just so happens that his friends are NBA players,” Clements says, smiling. This entailed designing 12-foot-long sofas and a special poker table for his towering companions, as well as sourcing correctly scaled vintage furnishings to accent Booker’s art collection. “Devin is very sophisticated when it comes to design,” says Clements. “He has an incredible way of combining older items that look lived-in with objects that are very contemporary.”
