Devin Booker on Suns' situation: 'That's not the Robert Sarver that I know'

Devin Booker is the longest-tenured player on the Phoenix Suns heading into the 2022-23 season. Sure, Chris Paul is the future Hall of Famer and potentially the glue that has held that team together through playoff runs over the past few years, but Booker is the franchise. 

Booker is one of the best young players in the NBA today, and as such, he's arguably the face of the Suns. As an important and highly-visible representative of the organization, this has to be an extremely hard time for Booker and his teammates around.

The Suns are facing an ownership change, as owner Robert Sarver has said that he's going to sell the Suns, as well as the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, in the wake of the one-year suspension and a $10 million fine levied against him by the NBA after an investigation found that he had used the N-word at least five times and also was involved in instances of inequitable conduct toward female employees, including sex-related comments and inappropriate comments on employees' appearances", per ESPN.

With the upcoming NBA season just weeks away, this leaves the Suns and their long-term future in somewhat of a state of flux. That has to be jarring enough as a star player with an organization, but according to Booker, this whole saga has been tough on him because the reporting paints a picture of Sarver that he's not all that familiar with personally.

"That's tough for me because that's not the Robert Sarver that I know, it's not the Robert that welcomed me to Phoenix with open arms," Booker said, according to ESPN. "But at the same time, I'm not insensitive to everybody that's involved in the situation. I understand everybody's personal experience with other people are always going to be different."

Booker was drafted by Sarver's Suns with the 13th overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft. He's entering his eighth season with Phoenix and just signed a four-year $224.2 million extension.