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It just took longer than expected for Boozer to actually get picked to join the game.

Boozer, who was one of six projected first-round draft picks to appear in the series of commercials for EA Sports' NBA Live 2003 video game, was chosen by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 35th overall selection of the draft.

Boozer, a 6-foot-9 junior center-power forward at Duke University, was the sixth pick of the second round after being projected as a mid- to late-first round pick. A total of 57 players were selected in the two-round draft (the Minnesota Timberwolves forfeited their first-round pick because of an illegal free-agent contract with Joe Smith two years ago, which means Boozer was really the 34th player picked).

The Carlos Boozer Archive

"I'm very excited that Cleveland took me with the 35th pick in the draft," Boozer said in a release from Duke (Boozer could not be reached Wednesday night or Thursday morning). "I think it's a great opportunity. It's a great situation. I think I can go in and contribute right away. Cleveland is excited to have me and I'm excited to be going there."

"We were very happy to have Carlos fall to us," said Jim Paxson, Cleveland's senior vice president and general manager. "He was projected as a first-round pick and, while I'm sure he's disappointed to fall to the second round, we were glad he was there. He's used to winning and had a lot of success in a very good conference. We needed another big body up front and Carlos has a good chance to make our team and play some minutes."

With the pick, Boozer became the third Alaskan to ever be selected in the NBA Draft. Boozer joins former East Anchorage High School and Duke guard Trajan Langdon, who was a first-round pick in 1999 by the Cleveland

Cavaliers, and former Bartlett High School and University of Alaska Anchorage guard Tony Turner, who was a seventh-round pick in the early 1980s by the Detroit Pistons but never advanced past the Continental Basketball Association.

Langdon is a free agent this summer, after three seasons with the Cavaliers, and is expected to change teams. Current Cleveland center-forward Michael Doleac briefly attended middle school at Monroe Catholic School in

Boozer didn't go to New York City for the draft. Instead he watched the draft on television at his parents' house in Raleigh, North Carolina, where his family moved after his freshman season at Duke. Boozer's mother, Renee, said being with his family might have been the best move.

"He's feeling pretty positive," Renee Boozer said. "He talked to the GM (Paxson) and the coach (John Lucas) for a long time and everything's going to work out fine, even though it didn't go as planned. It didn't turn out the way he wanted, but he's fine. He's doing good, especially being here with his support team. We were all here with his fiancee (Cindy 'CeCe' Blackwell), and his sister called. We know once he gets there he'll do fine. We saw an opportunity for him to play hard and show his game."

"Just to get drafted is an honor," said Juneau-Douglas High School basketball coach George Houston, who watched the televised draft in Juneau. "It's a real opportunity."

Boozer, who was a 280-pound center in college, was a third-team all-American this past season for Duke. He expects to play power forward in the NBA and dropped his weight to 255 pounds for more mobility.

In his junior year at Duke, Boozer averaged 18.2 points and a team-high 8.7 rebounds a game, posting the nation's second-best field-goal percentage by making 66.5 percent of his shots. Boozer, who led the Blue Devils in free-throw percentage (75.4 percent) this year and is Duke's career field-goal shooter (63.1 percent), averaged 13.3 points a game as a sophomore and 13.0 as a freshman.

Over his college career Boozer did well in big games, earning the MVP trophies in the ACC Championship this year and the Preseason NIT tournament his sophomore season. When Duke won the NCAA title his sophomore year, Boozer came back from a broken foot to score 19 points in the semifinal game and posted a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds) in the title game against Arizona. When Boozer played for Team USA in the World Championship for Young Men last summer, he led the team in scoring and rebounding as it won the gold medal.

"Boozer comes from a winning program," Lucas said in a post-draft press conference in Cleveland. "He is a little undersized, but his strength and his attitude is something we can use in our program."

Before the draft, more than two dozen media organizations and NBA experts had Boozer, a third-team all-American, being selected in the first round, with most mock drafts showing him selected with the 17th through 23rd picks. Nearly a third of the mock drafts had Boozer being picked by the Utah Jazz with the 19th selection, but the Jazz went with Notre Dame forward Ryan Humphrey instead.

"We were surprised Carlos was still on the board when we picked," Paxson said. "We felt that, after looking at our roster, you try to take the best player on the board. But we felt we was a guy that has a chance to make our team and maybe contribute next year."

Very few mock drafts did not have Boozer going in the first round, but he wasn't the only top college player to slide in the draft dominated by international players and young project forwards.

First-team all-American guards Dan Dickau of Gonzaga and Steve Logan of Cincinnati also fell, as did all-ACC forward Lonny Baxter who helped Maryland win the NCAA title this year. Dickau, who was projected as high as the 14th pick, was the only one to stay in the first round but he slipped to the 27th pick by the Los Angeles Lakers. Logan was the 30th pick (the first of the second round) by the Golden State Warriors, while Baxter didn't go until the 44th pick by the Chicago Bulls. Pac-10 Player of the Year Sam Clancy, a second-team all-American power forward from Southern Cal, was the 45th pick by the Philadelphia 76ers.

"These teams don't seem to value guys who've proven they can win at the top college levels," TNT draft commentator Kenny Smith said as more young international and project forwards were selected near the end of the first round. "I'd take Carlos Boozer or Lonny Baxter over any of these other guys who have been picked."

The slip out of the first round may have been costly for Boozer, since the NBA's collective bargaining agreement guarantees the last pick of this year's first round a three-year contract worth $2,087,900. Second-round picks don't receive guaranteed salaries, and Boozer will have to make the Cavaliers' roster to make the league minimum of about $350,000 a year, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. But second-round picks have shorter contracts and TNT commentator Kenny Smith said he was told by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban that late picks can get to the NBA's big-money contracts sooner than first-round picks.

Renee Boozer said her son briefly discussed one- and two-year contracts with the Cavaliers on Wednesday night, but negotiations will be handled by Carlos' agents, Arn Tellem and Rob Pelinka of SFX Basketball Group. Tellem, who heads SFX, represented 43 percent of the players selected in last year's NBA Draft and also serves as Langdon's agent.

"There were a lot of teams that passed on me and I think that's unfortunate," Carlos Boozer said in the Duke release. "I would have loved to have gone in the first round, but I'm excited about going to Cleveland and I'm anxious to start playing."

"First of all, we're really excited for Carlos," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said by phone. "Just being drafted is quite an honor. What's most important in Carlos' case is the team that drafted him. I think Cleveland will be a great team for him. They need people up front and Cleveland's first pick (Dajuan Wagner of Memphis) is a guard. I believe Carlos can do a really good job there. He's going to have a long career in the NBA."

Both Duke's Coach K and JDHS coach Houston said Boozer will have a good opportunity to prove himself once he makes Cleveland's roster.

"The main thing for him is he's not yet 21 years old and he is to be put into a position where he can play," Krzyzewski said. "So we're happy for him. We're very proud of him and we know he'll do an outstanding job there."

"I hope he takes this as an opportunity and makes the most of it," Houston said. "Cleveland's not been a very good team in the past, but this is an opportunity to get some minutes and maybe help turn things around. To me it was a big surprise, a huge disappointment, but I'm confident he can do really well."

In the series of video game ads featuring Boozer, which included one group ad and one individual ad featuring each player, Boozer may have summed things up best.

"You can play either as me or against me ... and against me is not a good idea," Boozer said before the commercial closed with an image of Boozer making a two-handed dunk in the background.

Charles Bingham can be reached at cbingham@juneauempire.com.