Carlos Boozer (photo. Jeffery Salter)

While Team USA goes for the gold in the Beijing Olympics, we’re digging into the Dime archives for a closer look at the players who will make it happen. For the duration of the Games, we’ll be re-running some of our best Dime Magazine feature stories on DimeMag.com.

Reprinted from Dime #35, Aug/Sept 2007

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Carlos Boozer knows what you probably think of him, and he’ll admit it’s his own fault.

He is the one, after all, who chose to play at Duke. And he’s the one who, while reaching All-Star status with the Utah Jazz, acts like an antagonistic brute on the court. And it doesn’t help that circumstance has done all it can to sink Carlos’ Q-rating to subterranean levels: He grew up in Alaska. He played for college basketball’s version of the Decepticons. And when do you see anyone outside of Salt Lake City rocking a Jazz fitted?

With all of that working against him, Boozer has still bullied his way into the class picture with the NBA’s elite – posting career-highs of 20.9 points and 11.7 rebounds a night last season and finishing ahead of D-Wade, Shaq, Amare and ‘Melo in MVP balloting and tying with Kevin Garnett. Along the way Boozer earned his first All-Star berth and led the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals. The 25-year-old has to be included with the big names at the game’s most loaded position, even as he remains largely a mystery to the general public.

“People that don’t know me look at my record and think I’m one of those outdoorsy dudes that listens to country music. That’s not me. That’s Karl Malone. He’s the Harley-driving, tight jeans-wearing, 10-gallon hat … people may assume I’m like that,” Carlos says. “Or because I went to Duke, people think all Duke guys are soft, that we’re not thoroughbreds. Whatever it is, there’s a stereotype. Or maybe they see I have a few tattoos and I’m very hip-hop and they see how I play and think I’m a jerk. But I’m not like that off the court. My wife will tell you, I’m a teddy bear off the court. Actually, that’s kind of a funny story …”

Spend some time around Boozer and inevitably you’ll hear that line. Give him a spare minute, and he’ll tell you a story.

It could be the one about his basketball infancy. “Education was big in my house, so I couldn’t leave until my homework was done and done correctly. So I’d get out to the court at like 5:30 after school, and my Dad would just drill me: jump shot, right-hand hook, left-hand hook, defense … until the other kids would show up at like seven. I always played against older kids; I was nine playing against 11- and 12-year-olds. My dad would point out the best kid on the other team and tell me how good he was. I’d have that dude on my mind all week long, and when the day of the game came, I had to either hold my own or get my butt kicked.”

It could be the one about basketball camp, when eighth-grade Carlos went to California one summer and was spotted by West Coast AAU capo Darren Matsubara, who runs the Northern Cali-based EBO program. “He told my mom that I was a little raw for a junior, but he could get me a scholarship. He saw my name in the program as ‘Carlos Boozer Jr.’ and thought it meant, ‘Carlos Boozer. Junior.’ My mom was like, ‘A junior? He’s in eighth grade!’ I got on the team and I went from an unknown kid that just loved to play hoop, to the following summer, I got my first letter from a school: UCLA.”

Or it could be the one about Trajan Langdon. “He was our legend in Alaska. We’ve been friends for a while now, and he still doesn’t know this, but I used to keep a scrapbook of his accomplishments. Whatever his records were, state championships, everything. I used it to motivate me. You know how girls have diaries? I had a scrapbook. I’d put my sister’s report cards in there – she had, like, a 4.6 GPA. I’d put Trajan’s basketball stuff in there. I don’t know, I was weird like that. In Trajan’s last game, he needed 30 points to break the state scoring record. He ended up with 38. He hit nine threes, he was doing crossovers and in-and-outs … stuff he didn’t normally do. So I put in my book, ‘Need to shoot the three-ball. Need to do in-and-outs.’ I had to get better every year.”

Carlos Boozer, you see, likes to entertain. He likes making everyone around him feel comfortable, at ease. He takes his teammates out to dinner on the regular. His Miami mansion is palatial even by NBA standards – sitting right on the lip of the Atlantic Ocean – but just as impressive as the main house is the adjoining guest house, which is generously stocked with a deluxe chess set and tons of DVDs for visitors. Soon after Dime cleared out of Boozer’s crib following a late-June photo shoot, he hosted a barbeque for about 40 friends and family members. While we didn’t stick around for the party, Carlos hooked us up with a table at swank South Beach restaurant The Forge – a spot where it’s almost impossible to get a reservation unless you’re tight with somebody. Later on, Carlos texted to make sure everything was good.

But Boozer’s chatty disposition contrasts his on-court persona. It conflicts with the inked-up, shaved-head, scowling look. With the 6-7, 260-pound sliver of concrete he uses to tear through the paint, leaving buckets and bruises, blood and boards in his wake.

“When it’s time to go to work,” Carlos says, he turns into a different animal. His alter-ego is drawn on his left shoulder: a grizzly bear bursting through Carlos’ skin, clawing its way into the light, ready to feast. Underneath it reads, “C Booz. The Beast Unleashed.”

Ten times during the regular season he unleashed it on opponents for 30-plus points, and for 15-plus rebounds on 18 occasions. He dropped a 41-16 line against Washington, a 25-20 against Golden State, and a 21-21 against Portland. In the playoffs, Boozer’s averages jumped to 23.5 points and 12 boards; he gave the Rockets 41 and 12 in Game 2 of their first-round series, then shut the door on them with 35 and 14 in Game 7. The next round saw Booz put 17 and 20 on Golden State in Game 1, followed by 30-10 outings in Games 2 and 5. And while the Spurs outclassed Utah in the conference finals, Boozer managed a 33-15 line in Game 2.

“Yeah, we had a game plan for him, but it didn’t matter,” says Tracy McGrady. “He’s a force on the court. He can score with both hands and he’s so strong. He had a so-so Game 1 against us, and I knew someone was gonna light a fire under his ass. There was nothing we could do in Game 2. Yao couldn’t guard him – he was too slow. And Chuck (Hayes) …”

T-Mac looks off and shakes his head.

Playing in 74 games last season, Boozer stayed relatively healthy for the first time since joining the Jazz in 2004 – the two previous seasons had seen him play a combined 84 games. But ask the storyteller about his breakthrough run, and he keeps it simple: He had to do it.

“This past year was a redemption year. After being hurt, I had to show that I am what I’m supposed to be,” Carlos says. “I had to prove to people that I could be a go-to guy. When you miss games and you’re hurt, a lot of doubters and a lot of haters come out. All that stuff motivated me last summer. I did yoga once a week on top of my lifting and cardio and track running, just trying to take care of my body in every way I could.

“I had to have this year so people could recognize that I’m gonna be a good power forward in the League for a long time,” he goes on. “People always looked at me like, ‘He’s talented, but he only plays half the season.’ I didn’t want that to be my rep for the rest of my career. So every game for me was huge: KG, Amare, Pau Gasol, Elton Brand, Shawn Marion, Zach Randolph … whoever it was, I was pumped up every night.”

Improved health and greater hunger made for last season’s success – Utah’s best regular-season record since 2001 and deepest playoff run since 1998. Flanking Boozer with Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur, and effective role players Derek Fisher, Paul Millsap and Matt Harpring, the Jazz began the year as one of the NBA’s hottest teams (22-9 through December), and finished with the fifth-best record in the West (51-31). Crashing the Spurs/Mavs/Suns party at the top of the conference, Utah has the pieces in place to be a contender for years to come, with Boozer as the centerpiece.

“As good as Carlos is playing now, he’s got a lot of skills people haven’t seen,” says Matsubara. “He can really handle the ball; he can shoot it from deep. When you see what he’s done the last couple of years in the NBA, I can say I’ve seen more. He hasn’t brought out all the tools yet. You haven’t seen the best of Carlos Boozer.”

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photo. Jeffery Salter

Boozer wasn’t the first NBA star overlooked in the Draft. From Gilbert Arenas to Michael Redd to Josh Howard, it’s an old story. Taken 35th overall by Cleveland in ’02 despite putting up 18.2 points and 8.7 boards and winning a national championship at Duke, it didn’t take long for Booz to make the Cavaliers look like geniuses. He averaged a double-double in his second year (15.5 ppg, 11.4 rpg), after which he was named to the ’04 U.S. Olympic team.

That same summer, he became a free agent. A lot has been said and written about what actually happened that led to Carlos signing a six-year, $68 million deal with the Jazz, and most of it vilifies him. The widely held belief is that Carlos verbally agreed to re-up with Cleveland if they didn’t pick up their team option on him for Year 3 of his rookie deal (which would have paid him $700,000), but as soon he got out of his Cavs contract, ran to the money in Utah.

“Man, I wanted to stay. I love Cleveland. We were young, we were kicking butt, I’d just had a phenomenal year with LeBron … me and him could have been one of the best combos to lead the new generation,” Carlos says. “But they took my option away to make room under the cap, and I had three offers from different teams for significantly more money. And I was really thinking hard, like, do I stay and take $30 million less or do I go?

“As soon as everything went down, I told LeBron I was getting offers from these three teams for X-amount of dollars,” he goes on. “And LB sent me a text right back, like, ‘Booz, do what you gotta do, man. I can’t tell you how much my life changed when I inked that Nike deal.’ See, LeBron is real like that. He was like, ‘Man, you got a wife, too? You better take that shit and run with it.’ People make it out like I stabbed someone in the back, but that’s not like me. I’m not the type of guy to shake your hand then do something behind your back.”

Even if he was in the wrong, can you really fault a man for erring on the side of family? Especially for someone who holds flesh-and-blood as close as Carlos does. Tattooed on his wrists are the names of his wife, Cindy, and sons – one-year-old Carmani and baby twins Cayden and Cameron, due in mid-August. His left ring finger bears his wife’s initials. He calls his sister Natasha “my best friend.” He spends hours playing chess with his father, Carlos Sr., and turns on his cell phone after Jazz games to find seven or eight messages Dad has left during the game giving advice.

And know that Cavs fans wouldn’t still boo Carlos when he comes back to Cleveland if he wasn’t a reminder of what could have been.

“You can give C-Booz the ball and he’ll get it done. He’s developed into a great player,” says ex-EBO teammate DeShawn Stevenson. “He got the name C-Booz from me in eighth grade. I gave him his swag. I was the point guard, he was the center, and we used to kill people. I’m happy to see he’s having such great success in the League now.”

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photo. Jeffery Salter

This summer will be another proving ground for Carlos Boozer. The “happy to be here” of making the conference finals has long worn off after four decisive losses to San Antonio. Plus there are individual goals left to achieve.

“I do believe that I’m in that elite group of power forwards in the game, but that’s not enough for me,” Carlos says. “I’m the leader of my team, the captain of my team, and we had a chance to go to the Finals and didn’t get there. Yeah, we ran into the champions, but we weren’t good enough. Right now, I’m busting my chops because I think I deserved to be on an All-NBA team last year. I heard I missed it by five or 10 votes, so I wanna convince those 10 guys next season that I deserve to be on the team. I’m letting that motivate me right now.

“There’s gonna be so much competition next year, you know? KG’s still KG. I know Elton Brand is busting his butt right now. And how do you think T-Mac feels? Think of how hungry Dallas is gonna be after losing in the first round; you know Dirk’s knocking down a million shots a day. The Spurs are the champs,” he says.

“So you gotta use that to fuel your fire. I felt we had a great year, but I wanna win a ring. I’m already out here working hard, man. I don’t think anyone else is out there doing what I’m doing. Maybe they are, but feeling that way is part of my edge.”