Boozer Forfeits Bonuses

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Carlos Boozer returned to his Los Angeles home on Tuesday after satisfying his employers that he is making progress toward his long-delayed - and still weeks off - return to the basketball floor.

Boozer's left hamstring, like his right foot last spring, has cost the Jazz their most dangerous interior weapon. But it has cost Boozer plenty, too.

Because of his lingering injuries, the 24-year-old power forward has forfeited $666,666 in playing-time bonuses during his two seasons with the Jazz, according to two NBA sources with knowledge of the terms of Boozer's contract.

The six-year, $70 million deal that lured Boozer to Utah as a free agent in July 2004 called for a total salary of $10,967,500 last season, and $11,593,816 in each of the next four seasons. But $333,333 of that salary each season is contingent upon Boozer playing a requisite number of games.

Boozer appeared in the Jazz's first 51 games last season, averaging a team-high 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds, before suffering a strained right foot that kept him out of the remaining 31 games. That was not enough to trigger the bonus, costing Boozer slightly more than 3 percent of his salary.

The fourth-year forward has missed 21 games this season with a hamstring injury he suffered Oct. 8 and aggravated at least twice since then. Boozer will not travel with the Jazz on their five-game trip which begins Friday at Indiana, and a return before January is extremely unlikely.

That means he will surrender the bonus this season as well, a loss of 2.9 percent of his original paycheck. The deduction reduces the Jazz's salary-cap charge, too; since the bonus is no longer considered "likely," Boozer's salary counts only $11.26 million against the Jazz's payroll, which still surpasses a franchise-record $56 million. </div>

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