Seminal moments rarely reveal themselves right away. At the time, Devin Booker merely thought of it as a plane ride to Mississippi.
For a year, his father had tried to coax him from Michigan. Melvin Booker saw how gifted his son had become on the basketball court and believed several years of his tutelage could help take Devin to the next level.
The decision to let him go broke his mother's heart.
"It was hard. So hard," Veronica Gutierrez said, minutes after Devin, the Suns' first-round draft pick, was introduced to the media Friday at US Airways Center.