And we're off! The Carlos Boozer US tour has left the station. 5 cities in 40 nights! First stop, Chicago. Booze's second annual radio tour kicked off yesterday as he stopped by ESPN Radio 100 in the Windy City to promote his summer camps in Alaska and Florida? The only difference this year is that he's actually a free agent (well, technically on July 1 he is).
This interview was actually toned down a bit on Carlos' part. He spoke in generalities and talked about whether or not he considers Utah a championship team. It's weird because if he was going to do radio interviews last summer, this is how he should have done it. I'm not saying he should have done one last summer but since he did, he should have swapped them. This should have been what he said last year. I would think he would be trying to market himself more this season since he can actually sign with a team. Pretty benign stuff this time around really.
Boozer said that he doesn't mind that Bosh, Wade, and LeBron get all the talk. He's not going to get an offer likely until those guys have signed first. GMs haven't been looking for the summer of 2010 for the last three years, clearing cap space, just to hope to sign Booze. He'll get a large deal but not before a lot of other guys. It will be interesting to see what Booze gets compared to Bosh and Amar'e. I think those two will get signed first though.
When asked what's most important when choosing a team, Boozer stated that playing for a championship is all that matters. They followed up with the question, "Well, does that eliminate Utah?" "No, not at all" was his reply.
He then talked about Chicago in general terms when asked about the team instead of the fawning over Derrick Rose.
Overall, nothing too sexy.
Here's the mp3. The interview starts at about the one hour, twenty-two minute mark.
Araujo is on Twitter baby! It's in Portuguese though so you'll likely need Google translate. Thanks to @saltcityhoops for the h/t.
Here are the two draft interviews with Hayward and Whiteside. There's a big difference maturity-wise. Whiteside is freakishly athletic but I wonder if he could even crack the bottom part of the Jazz rotation under Sloan. Would he put in the effort? It would be hard seeing another big ride the bench. Here's what Chad Ford had to say about him,
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Analysis: How can a guy who just measured with a freakish 7-foot-7 wingspan slip this far? The word out of Chicago was that the interviews didn't go so well. And as I wrote in my draft combine wrap-up blog post, I had the chance to sit down with Whiteside and I can understand why.
Whiteside isn't a bad kid, but he's very naive at this point, in a way that reminded me a bit of Tyrus Thomas. Eventually some team will decide the talent is too much to pass on. But I think he did some damage to his stock last week. He can certainly make up for that in workouts ... but he's just created a bigger mountain to climb.
For still has the Jazz taking Greg Monroe, but he seems to think that Korver is leaving and we could take Hayward,
(Monroe's) measurements out of Chicago also support his cause. He measured 6-foot-11 in shoes with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and a standing reach that puts him on par with most of the top big men in the draft.
But don't ignore a coming challenge by Gordon Hayward. The Jazz love him and need someone to replace free agent Kyle Korver.
Henry Abbott of True Hoop reviewed Driven, LHM's autobiography. I was on the fence about getting it but now it looks like I'm going to have to get it.
Here's another Jazz contest I didn't win. I'm still crossing my fingers that I'll win the Jazz locker room clean-out one of these years.
I love how CJ is the one that has to put up the sign. "Hmm, we need someone really tall.. Who do we got?" Most surprising about the whole thing is that we didn't see CJ tweet once about it nor see him on his phone on the video.