Finally! This is why Boozer needs to touch the ball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo and Caption by: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Jazz forward Carlos Boozer likes to get his hands on the ball during breaks in action and every time he takes the floor.

Utah Jazz: Carlos Boozer likes to touch the ball — and other creatures of habit

Published: Sunday, April 25, 2010 12:00 a.m. MDT

By Tim Buckley, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — They're hard habits to break.  Not necessarily bad habits, but habits nonetheless — and, for some with the Jazz, borderline obsessions.  Like C.J. Miles' pregame pullup.
Like Kyle Korver wanting a short shot or two every time he enters the game between whistles.
And, perhaps most noticeably, like Carlos Boozer touching the ball during most breaks in action and virtually every time he takes the floor.

"I never noticed how much (Boozer) does it," Miles said, "until ... someone asked me, 'Why does he have to touch the ball after every free throw and every dead ball?'

"I was like, 'He doesn't do that.' Then one game I had the ball a couple times ... he was like, 'Yo.'

"That's his thing," Miles added. "Just getting a feel for the ball, I guess."

More like becoming one with the ball.

"It's one of those habits you just get into," Boozer said, "and at the same time it's superstitious."
He's done it as long as he can remember, though perhaps not nearly to the degree he has recently.
Boozer walks onto the floor — after a timeout, say — and immediately goes for the ball.
No rebound is at stake, no points are to be scored. He just needs the ball. Desires the ball. Has to have the dang ball.  There really is reasoning, though, behind the madness. "Sometimes you don't get to touch the ball much as a big man," Boozer said, "so you just go touch it to see what it feels like."  As if he might have forgotten in the 60 seconds or so since he touched it last.

"He (Boozer) just wants to touch it," Korver said. "He doesn't care if he shoots it."  Korver, however, takes things to another level.

He needs to get up at least one shot, and — more importantly — see it drop. Even if the NBA's most-proficient 3-point shooter this past season is banking them in from grade-school distance.
"(Boozer) just wants to feel the basketball," Korver said. "I just like to get my elbows straight, and make one or two."

Korver's habit comes with cause, too — mostly because he comes off the bench rather than starting the game.

"You warm up, you get a lot of shots up, you find your rhythm — then you sit there for however long," he said. "There's just something about touching the ball and seeing it go through the basket."

Miles feels much the same, but for him the ball is his head.  His pregame routine once ended with a Deron Williams-fed dunk off the backboard. These days, though, Miles simply does a pullup — with his head popping through the net and ultimately the rim.


"It's kind of like seeing the inside of the basket," he said. "I joked to (a friend), 'I want to see the inside, because the ball's got to go in there.' "

For Boozer, a touch has become a must. Opponents sometimes are jealous, because referees realize what the length of games would be if everyone took a turn.

"One time," Boozer said, "someone — I'm not sure who it was; it might have been Juwan (Howard) — was like, 'How come you get to touch the ball and I don't get to touch the ball?' "

Boozer does it so frequently, though, it's not just teammates who know now to hand over the orb.
Occasionally players from the other team will, perhaps just to move the game along.  And some referees seem, well, trained.

"They know," Boozer said. "Most of them just give it to me now — just throw it to me as I'm walking over there.

"They just tell me not to shoot the ball. They hate it when you shoot it."

Korver has come to realize that as well, but he feels a need to get one or two up anyway. "Most refs are pretty cool about it," he said, "but some, if they don't like you, might not give you the ball right away."
If they don't get their way, Jazz players somehow survive. But they will go to great lengths to make sure their habit doesn't hit a hitch.

"If I didn't do it, I don't think it would mess me up that bad," Miles said. "But I guess I'm gonna have to do it every game now that you asked me about it."