After watching him grow for years to get to this point, Alvan Adams spoke on Devin Booker passing him on the Phoenix Suns' all-time scoring list.

-Gerald Bourguet

As Devin Booker moves into 2nd on Suns' all-time scoring list, Alvan Adams remembers how he got here

When Devin Booker was first drafted by the Phoenix Suns back in 2015, Ring of Honor member Alvan Adams didn't know who he was. Adams didn't watch much college basketball, so he needed the scouting report on the newest member of his lifelong team.

Adams got the same NBA player comparison that most people were hearing from draft experts back then.

"'Oh, he's another Klay Thompson,'" Adams recalled. "I go, 'Well, that's good.' And in my opinion, he's better than Klay Thompson in every year. And what an offensive player he is."

On Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings, Booker scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half to pass Adams for second on the Suns' all-time scoring list.

“Hard to put to words, especially passing Alvan," Booker said. "Somebody that I have a high respect for, somebody that’s been around this organization — not just as a player, but as a facility manager, always being hands on, and his presence is there and has been there from the beginning."

That passing of the torch was almost a formality, since Booker only needed 18 points to pass Adams, who joked before the game that Book could very well get there in the first quarter.

A cold, 1-for-7 shooting start prevented that from happening, but Booker came up big when the Suns needed him, shooting 6-for-10 in the second half and taking over down the stretch for the second game in a row:

“It was just a matter of time," coach Frank Vogel said. "He’s the best scorer this team’s ever seen. It’s just a matter of time before he’s the all-time leader. He’s got a unique knack, and this city and this franchise are very lucky to have him.”

From a broader view, the fact that Booker reached this latest milestone in 414 fewer games than Adams -- the franchise's all-time leader in games played with 988 appearances -- speaks volumes about his current trajectory.

"It is a storied franchise and a long history, and I was part of it many decades ago," Adams said. "And now it's Book's team for the last decade."

After Tuesday's game, Booker sits 1,749 points shy of passing Walter Davis for the top spot on the Suns' scoring list. Given that he's averaged about 27 points per game over the last three seasons, at his current pace, it'll take him another 65 games to get there. Book's superstar teammate, one of the greatest scorers of all time, is already looking forward to when that day arrives next season.

“The work he puts in shows up on game nights every night, and he inspires a whole generation of players," Kevin Durant said. "So as he hits these milestones, it's just actually what I expect him to do at this point. He deserves to be the No. 1 all-time leading scorer in Suns history with the work he's put in, so I can't wait for that day.”

The timing of this latest benchmark was ironic for Adams, who had been talking with a few ex-Suns teammates about Walter Davis and his celebration of life after Davis' recent passing last November. Someone told Adams that Booker was about to pass him, and that it wouldn't be long before he came for "Sweet D" in that No. 1 spot.

Back in Adams' playing days in the '70s and '80s, they didn't really keep track of fun stats and storylines like that. But there was an unmistakable excitement in Adams' voice as he spoke about Booker moving up the leaderboard.

"Somewhere on that record list with all the different fun statistics, he's gonna pass me tonight, and I don't know how many more -- a couple hundred points or a thousand points -- it is to get to Walter, but isn't it fun watching Devin Booker and this year's Phoenix Suns?"

As a Ring of Honor member who spent all 13 of his NBA seasons in Phoenix and now works with the organization as the Footprint Center's vice president of sustainability, Adams has had a front-row view of Booker's growth over his eight-and-a-half years in the league. He may not have known who Booker was at first, but Adams was immediately impressed with how hard the new rookie competed defensively, noting how he didn't mind fouling Kobe Bryant hard or going toe-to-toe with the league's best.

So in 2016, when Booker represented the Suns in the NBA Draft Lottery after his first season, Adams was hardly surprised by an exchange the two had in New York City.

"I'd met Devin before, and the first time it happened, I said, 'Devin, I don't ever want to be back here in the lottery again,'" Adams recalled. "He goes, 'I don't either.'”

Unfortunately for Booker, the Suns would appear in the draft lottery four more times before finally reaching the postseason. And yet, despite his aspirations to reach the playoffs and start competing for championships, Booker never wavered in his desire to accomplish those things in Phoenix. Being embraced by some of the organization's legends certainly didn't hurt.

"He's always been involved and hands on and somebody to talk to," Booker said of Adams. "All those guys, Mark West. I'd say there's usually a divide between the older generation and the new, and these guys took me in with open arms and showed me love from the beginning. So I can't thank them enough for that, and that's part of the reason I can call Phoenix home."

As someone who spent his entire career with the Suns, Adams can relate to Booker's desire to be a Phoenix lifer.

“I really appreciate I never heard one thing from him or his camp, like, 'I need to be on a better team,'" Adams said. "In the early years, when we weren't making the playoffs, he just kept getting better every year, and now he's one of the elite in the game ever. And I hate to talk about Hall of Fame, those things come up after guys retire and even before, but he's one of the greatest Suns players ever and one of the great players in the NBA.”

Adams has watched Booker go from a rookie few people knew about to a household name in the Valley and the undisputed face of the franchise. On Tuesday he watched Booker passing him on the scoring list, and sometime next season, he'll watch Booker pass Davis as the franchise's all-time leading scorer. A few seasons from now, Booker could stake his claim to multiple categories on that leaderboard. And as he continues to climb, his case for the greatest Sun of all time grows stronger.

So what does he have to do to add that distinction to his list of milestones?

“Well, everybody always talks about championships, and don't we want a championship here, and wouldn't it be great to happen this year," Adams said. "I hope Devin wins multiple championships here in Phoenix.”