Boozer a no-go for much-hyped Cleveland return

CLEVELAND — Since his controversial exit from here this past summer, anticipation has been building for Carlos Boozer's return to Cleveland.

Web site www.carlosloozer.com has been counting down the time. T-shirts calling him two-faced sell in shopping-mall sportswear shops. Radio ads invite fans to come boo him.

Finally the day has arrived — and Boozer is nowhere to be seen, choosing to stay back by Salt Lake City rather than visit the blue-collar town that rests on the edge of one of the true Great Lakes.

The Jazz on Monday issued a news release saying Boozer would not travel to Cleveland or anywhere else on a five-game trip that began Sunday in Detroit and ends Saturday in Washington.

Instead, the club's leading scorer and rebounder is staying in Utah, according to the Jazz, "for the rest of the week to continue his physical therapy."

Boozer sought a second opinion on his injury in Los Angeles late last week, and the Jazz said Monday they were still awaiting test results.

The team's usual starting power forward has been out since Feb. 14 — a full month now — with what is being called a "strained right foot."

"The most important thing," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said before a practice attended by numerous Cleveland media members all hoping to talk to Boozer, "is he's got to take care of what he's got going on with his foot right now.

"He can't worry about sideshows of this," Sloan added. "He's got to get himself healthy to play basketball first."

That's a disappointment to at least some bitter fans of the Cavaliers, who let Boozer out of his contract for the current season because they thought they had an oral agreement from him to re-sign — only to have the restricted free agent accept a six-year, $68 million offer from Utah that Cleveland would not, and essentially could not, match.

On the Web site self-described as the home of "outraged sports fans" in Cleveland, a drawing of Boozer looking suspiciously similar to a chicken filled much of the home page Monday.

"What a coincidence," Cavs fan Tim Parnin, speaking to the Associated Press, said sarcastically of Boozer not traveling.

Parnin has helped plan a pre-game "Loozerpalooza" party for tonight in Cleveland, replete with Boozer pinatas.

How other fans at Gund Arena will act, however, remains to be seen.

"I would have (expected a hostile crowd) if he was here," Jazz co-captain Matt Harpring said. "Now that he's not here, I don't expect anything different than any other game."