Jazz recouping cash now for Boozer's long absence

Carlos Boozer has been out so long, the Jazz are now recouping money — more than $100,000 per game — every time he does not play.

A high-premium insurance policy on the oft-injured forward finally is paying off for the franchise, and it's a little-known happenstance that surprised even the handsomely compensated Boozer.

"I wasn't even aware of that," he said Thursday. "That's interesting. I didn't know that. That's the first time I've heard of it."

Here's how Jazz owner Larry H. Miller actually is saving some cash because Boozer, who has been out all season with a strained hamstring and is 11 days away from reaching one full year without having taken part in regular-season NBA game, is not playing:

Each of the NBA's 30 teams is required by league rule to ensure at least its five highest player contracts with multiple seasons remaining, based on annual salary.

In the case of the Jazz, Boozer, who makes a team-high $11,260,816 this season — it would be $333,000 more had he reached a minimum games-played bonus, which he will not — is one of those players.

Others include Andrei Kirilenko, who is making $10,967,500 this season, and Mehmet Okur, whose season salary is $8,250,000.

The policy — purchased collectively by NBA teams through large, international re-insurance companies that vary year-by-year and in the past have included well-known Lloyd's of London — only starts to pay when a player has missed 41 consecutive regular-season games all due to the same injury, or some variation of it.

When Kirilenko missed 41 games last season, for instance, there was no payoff — because his absence was not comprised of consecutive games, he did not miss more than 41 and he had varying injuries.

Boozer missed his 42nd straight game because of the hamstring Jan. 23 vs. New Jersey. (The 31 straight games he missed at the end of last season do not count toward the payoff, since they were due to a foot injury, not the hamstring.) Tonight, when the Jazz play host to Sacramento, he will miss No. 47 in a row, all because of the hammy.

Beginning with game No. 42, the payoff kicked in: Insurance is now paying 80 percent of Boozer's per-game salary based on an 82-game season, and the Jazz are on the hook for the rest.

Boozer — whose six-year contract is valued at $68 million in guaranteed money, including a sixth season worth at least $12,324,233 at his option — makes $137,327 per game this season.