Athletes - Carlos Boozer

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	Athletes - Carlos Boozer

Carlos Austin Boozer, Jr. (born November 20, 1981 in Juneau, Alaska) currently plays professional basketball for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Boozer was a two-time Parade All-American in High School, leading the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears to back-to-back state titles. He then followed the so-called "Alaskan basketball pipeline" to Durham, North Carolina where he played collegiately for Duke University, helping the team win the 2001 NCAA basketball tournament.

Boozer declared for the 2002 NBA Draft, relinquishing his final year of NCAA eligibility. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the NBA draft. After an impressive sophomore season, he signed with the Utah Jazz in 2004 as a restricted free agent for roughly six years and a total of $68 million USD. The move would prove to be highly controversial.

Free agency controversy

Reported deal with Cleveland

After the 2003-04 NBA season, in which Boozer averaged 15.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, the Cavaliers had the option of allowing him to become a restricted free agent, or keeping him under contract for one more year at a $695,000 salary, which was clearly much lower than he would earn on the free agent market. If the Cavaliers chose that latter option, Boozer would have been able to enter the free agent market unrestricted after that one year expired. Boozer's high level of play meant that he very likely had in his future a substantial pay raise and the security of a long-term contract; the question, depending on what the Cavaliers chose to do, was just whether those benefits would come immediately, or after one more year.

Reportedly, the Cavaliers reached what they felt was a verbal "understanding" with Boozer. They would forgo their right to keep him for an extra year at relatively low pay, and instead allow him to become a restricted free agent. In exchange, he was expected to sign a long-term agreement with the Cavaliers, and not to sign an offer from any other team, despite the fact that he would certainly receive offers for more money than what Cleveland could afford in the new contract. The fact that Cleveland was over the salary cap meant that both sides understood the parameters of the new contract with Cleveland would be approximately $40 million over six years.

The deal appeared to be advantageous for both parties. Boozer would immediately get a substantial raise to over $6 million per year and the financial security of having a long-term guaranteed contract, versus playing the entire next season for only $695,000 and lacking any future security in the event of a career-threatening injury during that season. Meanwhile, Cleveland would assure itself of keeping his services for at least five more years under a deal which would be below market value and friendly to their salary cap considerations with respect to the remainder of their roster, rather than risk losing him on the free agent market after his original contract was completed the next season.

Offer from Utah

Once Boozer became a restricted free agent, he received an offer from the Utah Jazz. The Jazz had played the free agent market in previous years and had failed in attempts to sign Corey Maggette, Jason Terry, and Elton Brand. Thus they were determined to succeed with Boozer and they offered him the maximum contract allowable under the salary cap.

As predicted, the offer from the Jazz provided a salary that the Cavaliers could not afford to match. Additionally, a move to Utah would give Boozer the opportunity to be a more integral player on that team than he would be with the Cavaliers, whose top two players were already established as being LeBron James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. With these factors in mind, Boozer chose to sign with the Jazz, and the Cavaliers were forced to let him go.

Agreement? Understanding? Commitment?

For his part, Boozer has acknowledged that his original intent with regard to free agency was to remain with the Cavaliers. But he has steadfastly denied that he made any explicit verbal promise to the team to do so:

There was no commitment, it's unfortunate how it went through the media but I'm really excited to be in the situation I'm in. . . . It's against the rules, first of all, to have . I'm not a guy that gives my word and then takes it away, I think I made that clear. :—Carlos Boozer

As Boozer's comment indicated, an explicit contract agreement would not be permissible under the NBA's collective bargaining rules, and would be punishible by the league if it were discovered. Despite this fact, it is still believed to be common practice among NBA teams and players to make such agreements secretly.

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Athletes - Carlos Boozer

Free agency controversy

Reported deal with Cleveland

Offer from Utah

Agreement? Understanding? Commitment?

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