Copyright Anchorage Daily News
Former NBA star Carlos Boozer watched Duke’s NCAA tournament dreams shatter as a proud alum and prouder father. The top-ranked Blue Devils were on the verge of defeating Houston in the men’s Final Four back in April, holding a nine-point lead with less than three minutes to play in a national semifinal before they came undone with a blur of late-game miscues. After the buzzer, Duke Coach Jon Scheyer and stars Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel stared blankly ahead as they were shuttled through an arena hallway, their dominant 35-4 season abruptly ended before it could produce the program’s sixth national championship. In the days after that devastating loss, Boozer pondered what it meant for his twin sons, Cameron and Cayden, who are following in his footsteps as Duke freshmen this fall. The 13-year NBA veteran recalled how the Blue Devils’ 2001 championship run during his sophomore year was made possible by a 22-point comeback against Maryland in the semifinals. There was a lesson to be found on either side of a collapse. “This time next year, you could be in the Final Four,” Carlos told his sons. “You could be up six points with 30 seconds to go and lose that game if you have an untimely turnover or miss a boxout. Conversely, you could be in Houston’s situation and be down six with 30 seconds to go, and you can’t f---ing give up. You’ve got to believe you can win that game.” Carlos, 43, knows well the challenges and expectations that await his 18-year-old twins. When he arrived in Durham, the Blue Devils were fresh off a gutting 1999 NCAA championship game loss to Connecticut. Throughout the 2000-01 season, Carlos remembered, senior forward Shane Battier led a “redemption tour.” With Flagg and Knueppel off to the NBA, Cameron and Cayden Boozer will be tasked with helping make amends for that excruciating night in San Antonio. “It’s going to fuel us,” Cameron said. “I’m sure it’s going to fuel Coach Scheyer 10 times more. When you get so close and you end up falling a little short, it pushes and drives you to get right back there.” Indeed, the Duke machine is whirring again at full speed. Scheyer’s Blue Devils, who enter the season ranked sixth in the Associated Press poll, are back in the championship hunt after replacing the top-ranked recruiting class of 2024 with the top-ranked recruiting class of 2025. Following a summer of reflection, the 38-year-old Scheyer viewed last season’s finish as an example of college basketball’s impossibly thin margin of error. Few people understand the exacting dynamic better; Scheyer was a senior on Duke’s 2010 championship team, which nearly lost in the final when Butler’s Gordon Hayward launched a potential game-winner from half-court that rimmed off at the buzzer. “What fuels me is taking the pain and the heartbreak from (the Houston loss) and trying to do everything I possibly can to prevent (this year’s team) from having to go through that,” said Scheyer, who succeeded Mike Krzyzewski as coach in 2022. “Go through the history of the championships Duke has won. You can point out one single play that if it went a different direction, five championships could become nine or five championships could become two. That’s the margin. Little things aren’t little. Crazy things can happen. That’s the beauty of this sport.” Enter the Boozer twins: Cameron, a 6-foot-9 power forward who was ESPN’s No. 3 overall recruit for the Class of 2025, and Cayden, a 6-foot-4 point guard who ranked 16th nationally. Together, they won four consecutive Class 7A state championships at Christopher Columbus High near Miami. When they started at Columbus, their goal was to play college basketball anywhere but Duke. “I had a really tough time wanting to go there because my dad went there,” Cayden said. “We both felt like that. We thought if we went to Duke, we’d always be in his shadow.” Instead of trying to change their minds, Carlos focused on developing their games to prepare them for the NBA. As a teenager in Alaska, he was trained by his ex-military father and worked his way onto the national radar by playing on the AAU circuit. Krzyzewski made the long trip to Juneau to pitch Duke, and Carlos was drawn to Durham’s small-town feel when he made a campus visit. This was decades before name, image and likeness (NIL) and legal endorsement deals for college players, and Carlos resisted offers of money under the table from other schools because he “didn’t want somebody to have that over me.” The twins have navigated a much different and more lucrative landscape: Their high school games aired on national television, they were raised by parents who understood all aspects of professional basketball on and off the court, and their budding basketball careers were supported by a father who earned more than $145 million in NBA salary. Like many boys, the twins hung posters of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant on their bedroom walls. Before Carlos played his final NBA game in 2015, he introduced Cameron and Cayden to Bryant, LeBron James and Derrick Rose during locker room visits. “Of course we spoil them,” Carlos said. “I’m super honored to spoil them with luxuries that I didn’t grow up with. We live in a great house with a pool and a basketball court. But we let them know you have to work your butt off. It took me a lot of hours of blood, sweat and tears to get to that. If you want this for you, you’ve got to do the same thing.” Carlos first noticed his sons’ natural talent on the court when they were 8, and he recognized they had a chance to play at a high level once they separated themselves athletically from their peers in middle school. Before long, they were training with then-Columbus High coach Andrew Moran, who also worked with Miami Heat stars Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Dedicated weight training programs followed, and Carlos turned to longtime NBA agent Jeff Wechsler for guidance as the NCAA’s NIL era unfolded. Carlos, a bruising power forward who made just one three-pointer during his NBA career, also understood that basketball has evolved to place a greater emphasis on versatility and perimeter skills. Even though Cameron inherited his father’s brick-wall physique, Carlos encouraged his son to play all five positions and shoot three-pointers. The better Cameron and Cayden performed, the more their father knew their basketball pedigree could lead to jealousy and charges of nepotism. But Carlos and his ex-wife, CeCe, trusted the twins to keep proving their worth on the court. “Look at LeBron giving Bronny a chance,” he said. “I think that’s awesome. I applaud that as a dad. What dad wouldn’t want to give their kid their dream job? My kids have earned everything they’ve ever gotten. They don’t come across privileged or entitled. They’re very humble. They don’t boast and brag. They’re grinding for their own name. I love that about them.” To protect against his sons getting too comfortable or plateauing, Carlos encouraged them to seek out topflight competition whenever possible. Columbus High scheduled games against highly ranked programs outside Florida, and the twins played in international tournaments with USA Basketball. By the time they graduated high school, they were regularly playing in front of NBA scouts, going viral on social media and being trailed by cameras before and after games. “There’s going to be attention on us because (Carlos) was a really good player in the league,” Cayden said. “This is what we’ve been dreaming about since we were kids. We’re not afraid. A lot of people want to be in the NBA because of the lifestyle and everything that comes with it. For me and Cameron, our goal is to be really good NBA players and hopefully all-stars. I’ve had a really good life. I’ve been fortunate to have two amazing parents who have done well for us. That doesn’t change the fact that I want to do something for myself.” Where the twins’ story would unfold remained an open question. Scheyer wasn’t put off by their initial skepticism toward Duke or the fact that they got blown out the first time he watched them play as high school freshmen at a tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina. As Cameron and Cayden racked up accolades, Scheyer viewed them as high-character prospects capable of thriving in Duke’s pressure-packed environment. “I understood (their reluctance),” Scheyer said. “This is coming from a guy who had to follow (Krzyzewski), the best there is. I understand what can come with that.” The fourth-year coach sold Cameron and Cayden on the benefits of Duke’s high profile, the opportunity to play with other elite prospects and his staff’s familiarity with molding future stars. The Blue Devils have delivered 21 first-round picks in the past 10 NBA drafts. Carlos, who completed his sociology degree by taking three classes remotely in 2020, encouraged his sons to make their own decisions just as his parents had trusted him to do a generation ago. He reminded the twins that they would be the ones waking up early for practice and staying up late writing term papers. Ultimately, they concluded Duke was a lot more than just their father’s alma mater. “My dad going to Duke made it harder for Duke,” Cameron said. “Our whole life, we’ve been trying to make our own path. But you look at what Duke has done with guys at my position: Paolo (Banchero), Zion (Williamson), Brandon Ingram and (Jayson) Tatum. The history that Duke has and the resources they have off the court, it’s a magical place.” Cameron has replaced Flagg as the program’s centerpiece, posting 24 points and 23 rebounds in an Oct. 26 exhibition win over Tennessee. Thanks to his size, skill level and polish, Cameron is expected to vie with BYU forward AJ Dybantsa and Kansas guard Darryn Peterson to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft. Meanwhile, Scheyer sees Cayden as a fearless floor general with good feel who is “ready to impact winning right away.” Cayden’s ballhandling and organizational skills will be crucial with Flagg and Knueppel out of the picture, and his lifelong chemistry with Cameron is a rare asset. The Blue Devils face Texas in their season opener Tuesday, beginning a journey the Boozers and their extended Duke family hope will ease last year’s heartache. “I’ve been impressed in spite of their father,” Duke legend Grant Hill quipped. “Carlos was a Duke great, and his sons are coming into the program with a lot of fanfare to continue that legacy. We like to call it ‘the brotherhood.’ Now the brotherhood has spanned four or five decades, and we’re getting children. Maybe we should call it the nephewhood.”
