Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns is great. Where’s his insurance ad?

Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns is great. Where’s his insurance ad?

Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns is a transcendent NBA talent, an absolute magnet for fans during games. He’s young, he’s rich, he’s well-respected and he dates a supermodel and reality TV star.

Why doesn’t he have an insurance commercial?

Booker is basketball famous, and his play in the NBA playoffs, helping lead the Suns to the NBA Finals, has raised his profile in that regard.

But unlike LeBron James, for instance, who seems so familiar to people who don’t regularly follow basketball, or Booker’s teammate Chris Paul — he of the insurance commercials — Booker flies under the radar.

He’s famous in an old-school way, where we know what we see on the court and we know a little from what he posts on his Instagram account (and what his girlfriend Kendall Jenner posts), but not much more than that.

It’s kind of nice. It adds an air of mystery, particularly when oversharing seems like a virtue among many. He’s the star we don’t really know, and all sides seem OK with that.

As he tweeted, “I like the word mystique.” It suits him.

But for the casual fan, he’s more of a question mark. Devin who?

All right, that’s an exaggeration.

In truth, Booker has done commercials — for Hulu and Nike, for example. But that’s not what he’s known for. He’s been profiled in ESPN, interviewed in GQ, written about in Elle. He’s not a cypher, but he’s not a household name, either.

Why Devin Booker’s star is rising with the Phoenix Suns

Booker is the best player on the Suns. He’s one of the best players in the league. He’s playing in the NBA Finals. He was named to the U.S. Olympic team. He’s like Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when he gets his name in the phone book: “Things are going to start happening to me now.”

They already are, of course. See above.

Booker already has 4.2 million Instagram followers.

Paul has 10.4 million. And, you know, an insurance commercial.

(Jenner has 174 million, but come on, it’s not a fair comparison.)

OK, OK — this isn’t a competition! Much. Paul is a surefire Hall of Fame player who’s been playing 16 seasons. His trip to the Finals this season is sweet redemption for a spotty playoff record.

Which is the biggest reason Booker isn’t necessarily a celebrity outside basketball and reality TV circles. Before this season, he had no playoff record at all.

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That’s a roundabout way of stating the obvious. For most of his NBA career, the Suns have stunk. It’s hard to make a name for yourself beyond the game when your games aren’t worth watching. Yes, Booker went for 70 points against the Boston Celtics in 2017, which people noticed, because how could they not?

He went for 70 in a Suns’ loss to the Boston Celtics, it’s worth noting. For most of his career he’s been sort of like Arizona — something going on out there in the desert, and it seems interesting, but we’re not sure what. 

Don’t mistake this for a complaint. There is something old-school cool about this — about a player this good known mostly for what he’s doing on the court, especially since what he does on the court is so great. But there’s also something about it that nags just a touch.

Commercials are nice. Championships are better. Both could happen

If you date Kendall Jenner, you’re going to come in second in the fame game. That’s just facts. It’s also fine.

But he’s a little boxed in on the court as well, in terms of attention. His trip to the Finals should be the Big Story, a long-awaited breakthrough. But it’s not. Paul finally making the Finals is, along with the Suns’ historic turnaround. Beyond that, the evolution of Deandre Ayton as a marquee player is getting headlines.

Booker isn’t ignored. He’s played far too well for that. He’s just solid, a player you can count on. Nothing wrong with that, but … wait, there’s Paul, let’s ask him about State Farm.

Stories keep referring to Booker as an “old soul.” Who knows what that really means; presumably something more than his predilection for driving vintage cars to Phoenix Suns Arena for home games. Which is pretty great, by the way, and if LeBron James or Steph Curry did it, they’d be on the cover of every auto magazine in the country.

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Maybe Booker’s just not concerned with being famous, with celebrity life. (Or maybe he is. But he’s good at hiding it.) It’s a safe bet he’s simply more concerned with playing great basketball and helping his team win a championship — a notion that would have gotten you laughed out of every sports bar in the country at the beginning of the season — but that’s beginning to look like a definite possibility.

Insurance commercials are nice. Championships are better. Maybe both are within reach.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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