Cristo Rey’s Devin Booker has blossomed into a Division I hoops recruit. He sees it as a ‘blessing.’

Devin Booker needed something, anything, to help him avoid the death, danger, and despair that he saw growing up in Kensington.

Before the late-blooming senior standout at Cristo Rey High School committed to George Mason, Booker was a freshman at Boys’ Latin, where a friend’s suggestion changed his life.

Playing in college “is a blessing,” Booker said at the Rare Footage Sports showcase at Bensalem High last week. “If you asked me if I’d be going to a Division I school three, four years ago, I would tell you that you’re crazy, because I didn’t have the experience. I didn’t have the mindset. … I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t pick up a basketball.”

These days, Cristo Rey coach Kyle Sample calls Booker, a 6-foot-4 guard, one of the best shooters in the city.

But Booker was so inexperienced when he started playing basketball that his own name didn’t ring any bells.

“He did not know who [Phoenix Suns star] Devin Booker was when I met him in ninth grade,” Sample said. “He had no clue; it was just like, ‘Oh, he plays basketball?’”

Until he transferred there as a sophomore, Booker also hadn’t heard of Public League powerhouse Imhotep Charter, a nationally respected basketball program that has produced dozens of Division I recruits and sent hundreds of athletes to colleges for football and basketball.

Fortunately for Booker, he’s a quick study.

After one year at Imhotep, Booker transferred to Cristo Rey and repeated his sophomore year.

By then, he had made his own name, earning interest from college coaches while playing for Sample’s K-Low Elite AAU squad.

Tragedy, though, also had struck.

Kaylin Jahad Johnson, the friend who had encouraged Booker to play basketball, was shot and killed in July 2021.

Booker mainly played video games growing up, but occasionally, he said, he would play pickup basketball at the playground in Hunting Park.

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That’s where Johnson, who was entering his junior year at Boys’ Latin, saw Booker play.

From there, Sample took the reins.

“He’s freaky athletic,” Sample said. “I think he’s one of the best shooters in the city, if not the best shooter. Really good elevation on his midrange game, tough shot maker. And when he plays hard, he can impact the game defensively as well.”

Among Booker’s best attributes, according to Sample, is his mental approach.

“That’s the beauty of coaching a kid like Devin Booker for me,” Sample said. “A lot of these kids think they’re finished products or they don’t want to be coached. He’s thinking about what he can do better even when he plays good. When he plays bad, he’s definitely putting pressure on himself like he let his team down. I love that about him.”

Booker blends that mindset with what sounds like an insatiable appetite for hard work.

Sample said he gave his team off for three weeks in March and three more weeks in July. Every other week since, Booker has been lifting weights at the school at 5 a.m. with the strength and conditioning coach.

An electronic device tracks how many shots he takes during workouts.

“He’s at about 1,800 shots a week,” Sample said. “This is him. No one’s telling him to do this.”

In a manner of speaking though, the streets have been talking, and Booker listens.

“I’ve seen people dead on the block before when I was younger,” he said. “I’ve seen people get shot. I’ve seen people die. When I was living in Kensington, I saw dead bodies on the ground on my way to school. I just didn’t want to be around that.”

His father, Kenneth Hagins, also has his ear. Though to hear the proud dad tell it, Booker, who has lived with his father in Olney for the last few years, might also have his.

“I’m very proud of him,” Hagins said, “because he beat a lot of obstacles that many young guys fall victim to. And every day he just excels past that stuff.

“He’s focused and determined on his dreams and goals. He’s inspired me. He’s shown me that if you stay determined, good things will happen for you. I’m learning that from him.”