By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In high school, Gerald Booker was a small linebacker from Union that brought a big punch every time he made a tackle. Tracey Hunter, his future wife, was a basketball star at Union High School, where she set school records for scoring and rebounding, while leading the Yellow Jackets to a 26-0 season which ended with a state championship.

So, who passed on their athletic ability to Clemson standouts Trevor and Devin Booker?

“I will let them answer that question,” Devin said Wednesday while talking to the media as part of ACC Operation Basketball. “They probably would go back and forth with that argument. I really can’t say. I will say that it comes from both just so I do not make the other mad.”

And Devin, who is entering his senior season at Clemson, does not want to do that.

“I can’t just pick one because when I get back home, I could get a spanking for saying the wrong one,” he joked. “If you look at my parents, you can tell. They don’t joke around. They are pretty big so I’m not messing with them.”

Luckily for Clemson, Devin isn’t afraid of opposing post players as he is his parents. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound center is expected to be one of the top post players in the ACC this year after averaging 10.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game a year ago for the Tigers.

But growing up in a structured home and with three brothers who share the same love of basketball as he does, it’s easy to understand why Devin isn’t afraid to compete with anyone the ACC has to offer.

Trevor, now with the NBA’s Washington Wizards, was a standout basketball player at Clemson from 2006-2010, where he helped lead the Tigers to an ACC Championship game appearance in 2008.

Darrion Booker, who plays at the University of West Alabama, is a 6-foot-8, 235-pound center / forward, who like Devin and Trevor is strong, but can also move well with or without the basketball. Then there is little brother, Jarred Booker.

Jarred, like his father, plays football, where he is a freshman at Union County High School this year. But, he is also a talented basketball player and some are even saying he might be better than all of his older brothers.

“All of us have stuck with basketball, but Jarred is into all kinds of sports,” Devin said. “There is no telling what he’ll end up doing.”

Pickup basketball games became pretty interesting at the Booker household. Cousins joined the four brothers to even out the teams, which Devin says still are not even because of Trevor.

“It was hard for anyone to guard him so he would pick like the weakest link out of everybody and put him on his team and would just take over,” Devin said. “Darrion and I are usually on the same team so we can try and stop Trevor, but that really never happened.”

Growing up trying to guard a first-round pick in the NBA draft makes for good practice and is one of the reasons why Clemson head coach Brad Brownell says he doesn’t really see anyone physically pushing around Devin or his frontcourt mate, Milton Jennings.

“As grown men, physically, we should not get shoved around,” Brownell said. “We have two seniors that are 6-8, 240 and 6-9, 230 that have experience. They know how to deal with the size and the sure strength of some of the people in our league.

“That should not be a problem this year. Physically, we should not get knocked around.”

For Devin, it is simple, battling for position in the paint with the likes of Duke’s Masson Plumlee or NC State’s Richard Howell is a whole easier than battling for food with his brothers at the dinner table back in Whitmire.

“My mom struggled to keep food in the house,” Devin said. “She had to go grocery shopping every day to provide for us. I know that was breaking her pockets, but she did what she had to do to make sure we had something on the table every night.

“We had enough to eat.”