Nickname: Booz Cruise
Introduction
At his peak, Carlos Boozer was a dominant 20 and 10 guy nightly. This was impressive as he is only listed at 6’9, so he was fairly undersized for his power forward/center position. He was a good pick and roll player and him and Deron Williams formed a good PnR duo for their seasons together on the Utah Jazz. He had a little bit of some vision too as he could routinely make a pass down low in tight spots. Overall, “Booz Cruise” was solid player and was arguably a top five PF in his prime (nowhere near guys like Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, but maybe like two tiers below them).
Why He Should Be Remembered
While Boozer may not be very memorable in the NBA, his time as a Duke Blue Devil certainly deserves some recognition. He actually is their all time leader in field goal percentage at 63% and led them to an NCAA Championship in 2001. This is impressive as there certainly have been a lot of bucket-getters at Duke, but none of them have shot the rock better than Boozer. A member of their Athletics Hall of Fame, Boozer spent three years with the Blue Devils before he was selected in the second round by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2002 NBA draft. Look, I know this doesn’t warrant any crazy excitement, but you have to admit that leading Duke in all time FG% is cool. That fact should be memorized and yes, it will 100% without a doubt get you laid when used properly. I also like his nickname “Booz Cruise” (not because I am an alcoholic, but because I think it’s clever……..so clever that I think it grants me a celebratory beer for recognizing it). Oh and he also has two Olympic Medals with Team USA: one bronze in 2004 and then gold in 2008. Hey, that’s two more than you’ll ever have so I don’t want to hear it.
Why He Is Not Remembered
Despite having a solid 13 year career, the Alaskan native (yeah, I didn’t know that he lived in friggin Alaska either) did not have many standout seasons. He was only an All-Star twice and honestly (since this is usually the part of the article where we bash— I mean show honesty towards these athletes), he sucked on defense. Again he was undersized, but he also did not show a lot of effort and was consistently slow to rotations. There also wasn’t a whole lot of flash to his game. He was a little bit before my time, so if any of you are avid Carlos Boozer fans then by all means please tell me that I’m wrong because one of my more fonder memories of him is when he sucker-punched that ref after an and-1.
I mean give Danny Crawford for taking that like a champ.
Where He Is Now
Boozer actually just recently published a book Every Shot Counts: A Memoir of Resilience that follows his playing career. He also is a studio analyst on Nothing But Net, ACCN’s signature college basketball show. He also has been on numerous podcasts that I have seen clips of on Tik Tok, but I am not sure if he has his own or if he just guest stars on a bunch of different ones. He probably does have his own, I mean who doesn’t have their own podcast now?
