Christmas giving in the NBA

A few of the Christmas gifts I would, if I could, give on Thursday:

Gift to Carlos Boozer: A heart.

It seems the Utah Jazz's talented power forward needs a new ticker just as much — or maybe more — than the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Everyone knows Boozer is a great player — when healthy. The problem is that many people, including Jazz broadcaster "Hot" Rod Hundley, have questioned whether he is milking his most recent injury, a "strained left quad tendon" that has caused him to miss more than a month on the court. He's missed 17 games now.

Then, being positively Grinch-like to Jazz fans just before Christmas, Boozer told an ESPN.com reporter this week that he plans to opt out of the final year of his contract so that he can get a raise. While opting out may well be his best course of action, talking about it in New Jersey in December while sitting out with what some feel is a dubious injury wasn't very savvy on the public relations front. Jazz owner Larry Miller was blunt, as usual, during a radio interview on 1320 AM. Miller called Boozer's talking about opting-out "one of the top 10 stupidest things I've ever heard an NBA player do in 24 years."

Ouch.

Boozer won't get much sympathy from working class Jazz fans, many of whom have had to accept pay cuts — or may even be out of work, like the Utah Blaze players — thanks to these tough economic times. Boozer is scheduled to earn "only" $12.7 million next year for playing basketball — or not playing, as the case may be since he's proven to be injury prone.

Still, a man's got to put food on the table, so it's no wonder he's so desperate for a raise, right?

Gift to Paul Millsap: Boozer's paychecks for the past month.

Nobody will accuse Utah's undersized power forward Millsap about a lack of heart. He's been putting up Boozer-like numbers while starting in Boozer's place. And Millsap has been doing this by playing for relative pennies to Boozer's dollars.

Millsap is the lowest-paid player on the Jazz roster. It's true. Now, no one should feel sorry for him because he'll still pocket nearly $800,000 this season. But that's less than even Kosta Koufos, Morris Almond and Kyrylo Fesenko take home.

Let's put it this way: Millsap makes $9,856 per outing for the 82-game season. Not a bad living if you can get it.

But by comparison, Boozer makes $141,388 per game for the 82-game season. That means Boozer makes $131,532 more than Millsap — and that's per game.

So, in the past month, Millsap has earned $167,552 while averaging 17.9 points and 11.1 rebounds as a Jazz starter.