It's been one week since he announced he would attend Duke next season, and Carlos Boozer Jr. isn't questioning his decision.
"The question is, what don't you like about it," Boozer said of the Duke program. "It's just a great situation. Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) is the best in the nation right now. It's a great team with great players, everybody's going to be NBA All-Stars; I'll be playing against the best in the world during practices. We'll be on TV a lot. It's always (ranked) in the top five. The campus is great ..."
It's enough to get a quiet guy like Boozer to ramble.
Still, the 6-foot-9 245-pound power forward said he hadn't chosen between Duke, St. John's and UCLA until last Thursday. That was just a couple of days before he was slated to announce his decision in a press conference prior to competing in a high school all-star game in Detroit, the Magic Johnson's Roundball Charity Classic.
He said he called UCLA coach Steve Lavin and St. John's coach Mike Jarvis to let them know he had chosen Duke prior to the press conference.
"Yes I did," Boozer said. "They were disappointed, but Mike Jarvis and I will talk more and more. We have a good relationship and it will get better," Boozer said. "Lavin was maybe a little bitter, but he was OK with it. I mean, you know, I think they understood."
Boozer said it wasn't nerve-wracking making the announcement to the large group of reporters on hand.
"I was relaxed, it wasn't stressful," he said. "It was just great to feel like I know where I'm going."
Boozer's father, Carlos Sr., echoed his son's sentiment when he said, despite all the hoopla surrounding the announcement, the family wasn't frazzled or on edge as the press conference neared.
"Yeah, it's a good feeling," knowing where Carlos Jr. is going next season, Carlos Sr. said. "But `relieved' isn't the word; we enjoyed the questions and talking to people about it; it was fun."
But Carlos Sr. said it was also fun having a few days away from the media to spend alone with his family a week prior to the announcement - just after Carlos Jr. competed in the McDonald's All-American Game in Iowa.
"We flew to Florida, it was great relaxation after the McDonalds game," Carlos Sr. said. "We went into the Gulf of Mexico on a boat, spent some time out there; the weather was perfect, nice and warm."
Carlos Sr. said even at that point he didn't know where his son was going to play next fall.
"We hadn't much talked about it; I was trying to keep basketball away from his mind as far as possible," he said. "We just wanted to let him relax and be himself."
Carlos Sr. said it wasn't until last Thursday that he and the rest of the Boozer family discussed the situation.
"We talked about it a couple of days before the announcement," Carlos Sr. said. "Renee (Carlos Sr.'s wife) and I and even Charles (Carlos Sr.'s youngest son) each talked about all the schools and determined what we though were the best pluses and minuses. Then Carlos thought about it. He talked to us about his chances and things and told us (it would be Duke)."
Carlos Sr. said he knew that, whatever Carlos Jr.'s decision, it would be a good one.
"Oh yeah, he knows what's best for him. Renee and Carlos and Charles and I were all very happy. We just sat and had a celebration," he said.
With good reason. Carlos Jr. will be a part of possibly the finest recruiting class in the country when he arrives on the Durham, N.C., campus next fall.
Boozer, who averaged 27.7 points and 11.9 rebounds for the Crimson Bears this year, joins three other McDonald's All-American recruits, including 6-11 center Casey Sanders (Tampa, Fla.), 6-7 forward Michael Dunleavy (Portland, Ore.) and 6-2 point guard Jason Williams (Metuchen, N.J.) who was voted the McDonald's Player of the Year.
On the flip side, the player many consider to be the best in the nation, sophomore center Elton Brand, is leaving the Blue Devils to enter the NBA draft according to a report published on the ESPN web site on Thursday. Brand has not made an announcement yet.
"I think it'd be great no matter what he (Brand) decides," said Carlos Sr. "If he leaves, the pressure will be put on him (Carlos Jr.) to try his best to sustain what Duke has done and a lot of the younger kids will get a chance to be on the floor more. If he (Brand) stays, it's even better because Carlos plays against him and learns against the best in nation."
Even if Brand does go pro, the Blue Devils still have `97 recruiting class standouts William Avery, Shane Battier and Chris Burgess returning.
But that's looking ahead too far for the Boozers. For now, they're content to rest up after a wild two years of speculation and intense media scrutiny that will finally die down and give the family some much-needed peace and quiet - though they insist they weren't frustrated by all the commotion.
"Not at all," Carlos Jr. said. "I had a great senior year; it didn't end like I wanted it to (with a third straight state championship) but it's been a great four years for me at Juneau-Douglas High School."
Boozer is already regarded by most locals as the finest athlete to ever compete at JDHS, a school rich in talented athletes - basketball players in particular.
His accomplishments lend validity to such feeling: Boozer has twice been voted to the prestigious Parade All-America team and he was voted first-team this season; he was voted to the McDonald's All-America Team this season, becoming only the second player from Alaska to win the honor, along with former East Anchorage and Duke star Trajan Langdon; he led Juneau to state championships in 1997 and 1998, and has been the Alaska Player of the Year for the past two seasons; and he's won uncounted awards and MVP trophies while playing with the AAU Elite Basketball Organization (Fresno, Calif.) for the past three summers.
While he may No. 1 in the hearts of Juneau fans, he'd like to be No. 4 at Duke - the number he wore through his high school career.
"I'm sure I'll be able to wear it," Boozer said. "They have a No. 4 right now, but nobody's wearing it."
One can be sure plenty of other Juneau youths will be wearing the jersey in the years to come, too.
