Representing the U.S. ‘means everything’ to Phoenix Suns SG Devin Booker

PHOENIX — There’s wearing your team’s colors and then there’s wearing your country’s colors, the latter of which is reserved for only the best of the best, a group that now includes Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker.

Later this month, Booker will join 24 other top young players who have been chosen for the 2016 USA Men’s Select Team that will train with the U.S. Olympic Team, which was named on Monday.

The training camp will be held July 18-21 in Las Vegas.

“It means everything because you get to represent your country,” said Booker, who becomes the third Suns player named to the USA Select Team since the first was fielded in 2007. “It’s not just playing in the NBA. It’s playing for your country, the country that I was raised in. It just means a lot to have those letters across your chest.”

The invitation “is an introduction into our pipeline,” according to USA Basketball National Team managing director Jerry Colangelo, putting Booker, and others, in consideration for future Summer Games.

Current national team players Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson got their USA National Team start through the Select Team.

Booker had hoped — slim as it may have been — to be called upon to represent the U.S. in Rio.

“A lot of guards have backed out. If I get that opportunity — I don’t care about the Zika virus, I’ll be there,” he said, laughing.

At 19, Booker is the second-youngest player on the Select Team, trailing only 18-year-old Brandon Ingram, who was recently drafted second overall by the L.A. Lakers.

Coached by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, the Select Team features a former Kentucky teammate of Booker’s, Sacramento Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein.

“You can learn so much from that, not only from the NBA guys but the other guys you’ll be playing against from overseas because they’re really good, too,” Booker said. “Just being around that environment, that’s like the highest class of basketball you can get to so to be a part of that should be something special.”

Booker earned his selection.

He ranked fourth among rookies averaging 13.8 points in 76 games, increasing that production by nearly five points (18.5) over the season’s final 44 games after joining the starting lineup for good on Jan. 8.

In addition, Booker led all rookies by shooting 84.0 percent from the free throw line and recording six games with 30-plus points, the most by a rookie since Blake Griffin in 2010-11.

Booker finished with 1,048 total points, becoming the fourth-youngest and just the sixth teenager in league history to surpass the century mark.

“I’ll be honest with you we had no idea he’d be this productive this soon in his NBA career, to be the fourth-youngest player in NBA history to score 1,000 points,” said Suns GM Ryan McDonough, who drafted Booker with the 13^th overall pick in 2013. “Any time your name is up there in a group of four with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant as the four youngest players to score 1,000 points in the history of the NBA, that’s pretty gaudy territory.”

Robin Lopez (2008) and Miles Plumlee (2014) were the two previous Suns players named to the USA Select Team.

“We’re elated for him to be able to go to Vegas and play for U.S.A Basketball,” McDonough said. “I think it’ll be a great barometer for him to see where he is and how he stacks up against the best players in the world because I think that’s where he’s headed. I think one day, he’s a guy who has a chance if he keeps developing and improving to maybe make an Olympic team or be on the main team for U.S.A. Basketball.”

Booker’s inclusion on the Select Team is expected to affect his status on the Suns’ summer league team, which begins play July 9 in Las Vegas.

How much Booker plays, if at all, is still being discussed, according to McDonough.

There was already a question of Booker’s summer plans considering how many minutes he logged as a rookie.

Booker, though, wants to play.

“Even if it’s not all the games, just a couple of games. Get a feel with playing with the new guys,” he said, referring to draft picks Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss and Tyler Ulis. “I know they’ll be there, and that will be interesting because they’re going to be a big part of our team. So getting used to how they play — obviously I already know how to play with Tyler, but getting used to the bigs, how they want the ball, when do they want it, what are their tendencies.  You can’t actually learn that until you play with somebody.”

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