It was a chant that sent shivers down the spines of many people at Vivint Arena on Friday night.
“Booooooooooozzzzzzzzzzzzz”
Former Jazz big man Carlos Boozer was back in the snowy mountains of Salt Lake City as Utah honored one of its greats. A two-time all-star and all-NBA selectee in his six seasons with the Jazz, Boozer was given a standing ovation by the Utah faithful when he was introduced to the crowd during the third quarter against the Phoenix Suns.
“I had a blast here. I had a great time. … This is one of the best teams I ever played on,” he said before tipoff on Friday night. “We were like a family. Coach Sloan made sure of that, and Larry Miller made sure of that. My kids would be running up and down the hallway, all our kids would be doing the same thing. … We had a really unique team where everybody was an option.”
All love, @MisterCBooz #OneAJazzman pic.twitter.com/ykT88mAYCA
— x – Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 9, 2022
Armed with a goatee and fire within that terrified even the toughest people, Boozer unveiled a different side of himself when speaking with the media on Friday. Gone was the fierceness of his scowl, and in its place was a smile that brightened the night and a booming laugh that was contagious to everyone listening.
Although the goatee has matured into a beard, Boozer recounted old stories about his former teammates, the late Jerry Sloan, his odd connection to current Jazz coach Quin Snyder, and most notably, an incredible story about Prince — yes, the Prince who only needs one word for his name.
“We just had a really great team of guys that loved to play basketball. … Then we had coach Sloan, that knew how to put all the pieces in the right spots,” he said. “Me and Deron (Williams) got a lot of the shine, but Memo (Mehmet Okur) was great, AK47 (Andrei Kirilenko) was terrific, Matt Harpring was great, Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap were young pups who were obviously studs. … We got Kyle Korver, looks like Ashton Kutcher out there with a jump shot. We had a blast.”
While Boozer was correct in discussing those great Jazz teams during his tenure, make no mistake, he was one of the group’s leaders. Easily the most feared on the court — as evidenced by a story from Ronnie Brewer during the game — Boozer brought this intenseness that appeared to drive the Jazz to new heights during his tenure.
He averaged 19.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists during his time in Utah, all career-high numbers. He and Williams kept up Utah’s long-standing tradition of having an elite pick-and-roll combo, reminding fans of the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Although the Jazz never got to the NBA finals during his time, falling just short to either the Spurs or Lakers, Boozer still maintains that those teams were one piece away from winning a title.
“Slowly but surely, all the pieces came together. … We felt like we might have had enough,” Boozer said. “I thought we really needed one dominant center, I felt like we were that piece away from winning it.”
Checking in with C-Booz pic.twitter.com/X4A2wTwLU4
— x – Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 9, 2022
While Boozer now spends his time in Miami, enjoying life as a dad while spending time with his kids at their different sporting events, he still stays involved in the game of basketball — even with the current Jazz team.
“They got some studs over there,” he said. “(Jordan) Clarkson was my rookie when I was in L.A, and he’s found a home here, gives you guys a huge lift off the bench. Obviously the ‘Eiffel Tower’ (Rudy Gobert), there’s nobody like him. … He’s like the modern-day Dikembe Mutombo in this era. I wish we would have had that guy back in the day. And then Donovan’s (Mitchell) special, man. He’s one of those guys that can score with anybody in the league. … True superstar.”
Staying involved with the current team has even sparked a friendly debate between himself and Williams, a friendship that still stands strong today.
“Me and Deron talk about ’em a lot,” Boozer said. “I think we would have won if we would have had Rudy Gobert. He (Williams) thinks we would have won it if we would have had Donovan as our two-guard. So we go back and forth with that. … It would have been cool if we would have had both.”
. @MisterCBooz is in the house!
We’re ready to celebrate him and his incredible career during the game tonight pic.twitter.com/mDtpNSKTOE
— x – Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 9, 2022
Interestingly enough, Boozer knows Snyder quite well — but from 25 years ago.
As a rising star in Juneau, Alaska, Boozer was among the best prep basketball players in the county and recruited by plenty of big-name schools — including Duke. As an assistant for the Blue Devils, Snyder was one of Boozer’s leading recruiters and a big reason why the big man ended up in Durham, North Carolina.
Although they never got to work together — Snyder left Duke to become the head coach at Missouri — Snyder remembers coaching against the very same player he recruited.
“He was special, really special, even back then,” Snyder said.
While Snyder was right and Boozer was special back then, he was even more special in a Utah uniform as a part of his legacy remains today; the infamous triple-double. Boozer is the last Jazz player to record a triple-double in a game, doing so back on Feb. 13, 2008, against the then Seattle Supersonics.
“It was an accident, I was just playing ball. … I wasn’t trying to get it,” he said while laughing. “I’m just passing the ball, having fun, trying to win a basketball game, and the bench yelled out to me, ‘Yo, you get one more assist, you get a triple-double.’ So I got a rebound and Ronnie Price leaked out. I just threw the ball and he raced down and let it bounce a couple times, and when he caught it, it was an assist. … So it was a team triple-double.”
| It’s true: @MisterCBooz will be at the game tomorrow.
Want to re-live those years or educate younger Jazz fans who don’t know about #5 in Utah? Download #TheNote wherever you get your pods or click here
— x – Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 7, 2022
As Utah prepares to host the 2023 NBA All-Star game, many stories will be written about the past Jazz greats — and it’s fitting that Boozer is mentioned alongside the other legacies listed.
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