NEW ORLEANS — First he watched then-teammate Derek Fisher deal with his daughter's childhood eye cancer during the Jazz's playoff run last season.

Then he saw Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer not only spend the offseason helping to care for a young son who is battling sickle cell anemia, but also — despite missing the first couple weeks of training camp and the preseason — turn himself into a repeat NBA All-Star.

"I've seen two of the most stable guys in a situation like that," Ronnie Brewer said.

"Me, I'm a young guy. I don't know how I would have handled it," he added. "They're more mature than me, and you can tell by the way they handled that."

That 2004 Olympian Boozer indeed will play in tonight's NBA All-Star Game, though, does not shock his closest teammates — despite all he endured over the summer, including a long hospital stay for son Carmani that included chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, and having to skip playing internationally for Team USA.

"I really wasn't surprised at all. I mean, Booz is a competitor," point guard Deron Williams said. "I'm glad his family situation is good now. ... That's the main concern. It wasn't even about basketball. It was about his family. That comes first. But for him to miss training camp, and he came in after three games in the preseason and basically played like he's been there the whole camp — it definitely shows a lot about his heart, and about his desire."

"I didn't play that much last year, but I had good seat watching Booz and DWill (Williams) develop. The more they were playing together, they were on the same page and they just connected," added Brewer, who is now the Jazz's starting shooting guard. "So I knew once he got back with the team ... he was gonna fit right back and pick up where he left off last year."

To do so, Boozer — who also became the father of twins during the offseason — had to figure out a way to delicately balance demanding family needs with those of his lucrative profession.

He was only able to do so, he said, because of his relationship with the spouse he met while a student at Duke University.

"It was tough," Boozer said. "I have an incredible wife, and she took a lot of stress off me because she would be there (at the hospital, with Carmani) during the daytime and let me train, and I would be there at nighttime when he was trying to get some sleep a little bit.

"She took a huge chunk of the burden off my shoulders by being there in the daytime," Boozer added. "So, with her by my side, I was able to stay in shape."

When he finally did catch up with the team in mid-October, eyes that mattered noticed.