At his expansive home outside Phoenix, the athlete entertains his towering teammates and friends in high style
Within the hard boundaries of a basketball court, NBA wunderkind Devin Booker has crafted a style with all the finesse of a butterfly. The 25-year-old Phoenix Suns guard has a fluidity, an impossibly fast series of movements, that would have made Diaghilev proud. When he shoots, the basketball seems to cooperate—as balls seem to do for all great players—before the parabola is completed through the basket (in 2018, Booker was crowned the NBA Three-Point Contest champion). But while the public is used to seeing him gliding across a basketball court, Booker’s domestic digs perhaps demonstrate an even keener grasp of physical detail and the movement of bodies in space.
The house looks out to the nearby Phoenix Mountains Preserve.
Devin Booker, wearing a Dries Van Noten sweatshirt, Needles track pants, Birkenstock sandals, and Uniqlo socks, in his garden. Fashion styling by Browne Andrews.
Photo: Christopher Sturman; Styling: Colin King
“I consider myself fortunate to be surrounded by people with great style,” Booker says. “Whenever I walk into my friends’ homes, I’m like a sponge, asking questions and absorbing what I see.” That curiosity is now on full display in the basketball star’s sleek Arizona abode. The modern single-story home features dramatic views of the nearby Phoenix Mountains Preserve, as if the framed vistas were painted by the Taos Society of Artists. In fact, it was precisely that drama, that immediate connection to the surrounding landscape, that attracted Booker in the first place. “When someone approaches the house, it’s deceiving because it appears there’s not much going on,” Booker explains of the property, which was sold to him in 2019 by his brother, Davon Wade, a real estate agent. “But once people enter and they see the pool, the yard, and all the adjoining rooms, they’re taken aback. I love how a seemingly straightforward home can still be a big reveal.”
While Booker is widely considered among the NBA’s brightest young stars, his origins tell a humbler story. “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 Grand Rapids native. “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 doesn’t have to close his eyes anymore. With a helping hand from L.A.-based AD100 firm Clements Design, that dream is now a reality.
Thomas Hayes Studio stools covered in Moore & Giles leather and Keleen Leathers shearling pull up to the kitchen counter.
Booker’s collection of cars in the garage.
“All you need to know about Devin’s eye for design is in the way he dresses,” explains Kathleen Clements, who, along with her son and design partner, Tommy Clements, helped craft the home. “Everything he wears is cool and stylish but in a very natural way. It’s not something everyone can pull off.” Working within the existing architectural envelope, Clements and her team, in collaboration with L.A.-based Karan Brady Interiors, dressed the new home with custom furniture that can accommodate bodies pushing seven feet tall. “Devin loves to entertain, to be around his family and friends. It just so happens his friends are NBA players,” Clements says with a smile. That meant crafting 12-foot-long sofas and a custom poker table suitable for his towering teammates, and finding appropriately scaled vintage furnishings that complement Booker’s art collection. “Devin is very sophisticated when it comes to design,” Clements adds. “He has an incredible way of combining older items that look lived-in with objects that are very contemporary.”
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Booker and his girlfriend, supermodel Kendall Jenner, took a road trip exploring other areas of Arizona. “We visited Roden Crater and were astonished by the experience,” he says of the large-scale artwork created within an extinct volcano by James Turrell. Booker was so in awe that he decided to purchase a signature Turrell LED wall sculpture for his dining room. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the home, having this beautiful piece of art that me and my guests can appreciate while enjoying a meal,” he notes.
Since his meteoric rise in the NBA, Booker’s hard work has allowed him to become the architect of his own story. His house is his sanctuary, an oasis from the high-pressure life of a professional athlete. With retracting walls of glass and a yard that boasts a Bali-inspired swimming pool, a firepit, and a guesthouse, the young superstar feels the best version of himself while at home: “I know this house is something special. During those long stretches on the road, I can’t stop thinking of getting back here. It’s like something that’s been a part of me my whole life but I’m just realizing it now.”
