A major talking point heading into this NBA draft cycle revolves around who will be the number one overall pick, with three candidates having distinguished themselves from the pack. Those players are all freshmen: Kansas Jayhawks guard Darryn Peterson, BYU small forward AJ Dybantsa, and Duke power forward Cameron Boozer.
Recently, Boozer's father Carlos, who enjoyed a successful NBA career in his own right, broke down what makes his son such a special prospect.
“There are not that many guys that can be an 18-year-old on the biggest stage in college basketball like Duke basketball — [and] with what comes with that — and the entire team will follow him,” said Boozer, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “You know why they do that with Cameron? Because he gives so much to the game. He gives so much to his team. Whatever it takes, he’s an unselfish superstar, and that translates to the NBA.”
Boozer also evoked the name of some NBA legends to describe what his son brings to the table.
““You look at what Tim Duncan did. I’m not comparing Cameron to Tim Duncan, but he was another guy that wasn’t [athletically] a Kevin Garnett or a Tracy McGrady or a Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O’Neal. But you know what he did? He won five championships in that era…”
Indeed, Tim Duncan has long been the standard for power forward dominance in the NBA, despite not having been an athletic freak by league standards.
Boozer will hope to bring a similar level of consistency and defensive prowess to whichever team drafts him this June. Whether he goes first, second, or third might come down to which team gets the number one overall selection, and what their needs are.
