Enigma Central to Boozer: You win

We here at Enigma Central like to think we're pretty smart and have all the answers, but allow us to let you in on a little secret: We've met our match.

We're stumped by Carlos Boozer.

If you thought wormholes were confounding, this guy is off the charts. Any more mysterious and he'd be living on Easter Island.

Is there anyone out there — anyone — who can get a read on him?

A year removed from Boozer's return from the most drawn-out hamstring injury in history, we analytical types remain baffled. Criticism about his work ethic seems to have died down, as has speculation that he wants to be traded. At the same time, we still don't know much at all about the man who arrived here under a shroud of mystery three years ago. Is he a good guy? A jerk? A future All-Star or an injury-plagued sob story?

As they used to say in "To Tell the Truth," an old TV game show: "Will the real Carlos Boozer please stand up?"

Have the Jazz ever had a more enigmatic/contradictory player?

Around here we're actually used to contradictions. We lived through 18 years of Karl Malone, who would earnestly say he loved Utah one minute and threaten to leave the next. The Mailman could contradict himself by clearing his throat. Likewise, owner Larry H. Miller goes gooey when players retire (and sometimes even when they're traded) yet can go on swearing tirades in the locker room.

People thought John Stockton was enigmatic, but at least everyone understood he was a guy from Spokane who didn't want the public in his business.

Compared to Boozer, those guys are as transparent as a raindrop.

Boozer's a different case. Just when it seemed injuries would land him on the scrap heap, he fires off a season of double-doubles. He now leads the Jazz in both rebounds and scoring. Yet an argument could be made that he's still only the team's fourth most popular player, behind Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur.

He might even trail Paul Millsap in popularity.

He is arguably their best player, though it's hard to ignore that the Jazz are 0-2 when Williams is absent, but 6-2 without Boozer. (One of those losses was a game both Williams and Boozer missed.) The Jazz are the league's only team that is more than two games over .500 without its leading scorer. They are clearly a deeper team with Boozer, but how much better?

As with everything involving him, it's hard to say.