Matt Yglesias

The Reggie Love Factor

Huh. It seems that Carlos Boozer actually has weighed-in on the election:

One of Jazz All-Star forward Carlos Boozer’s former teammates at Duke University is Barack Obama’s personal assistant Reggie Love, a relationship that helped pave the way for Boozer to chat one-on-one recently with the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.

“I had a chance to meet (Obama) in Miami about three weeks ago, and I had a talk with him for about 10 or 15 minutes,” said Boozer, who — though he was raised in Alaska, the home of Republican Party candidate for vice president Sarah Palin — is a big Obama backer.

“He’s so impressive,” added Boozer, a two-time U.S. Olympian who won gold in China earlier this year with Team USA. “He (Obama) has this incredible aura about him. The way he talks, I want that guy leading my country.”

So there you have it. Of course I assume the NBA player demographic tilts heavily in Obama’s favor, even if not every player has specifically remarked on the election.

The Palin-Boozer Nexus

Looking forward to NBA season I, like everyone else, see the Celtics and the Lakers as once again the teams to beat. And then of course there’s Houston where if everything goes well they’ll be extremely good but it seems unlikely that the Yao/T-Mac/Artest troika will really avoid physical and mental breakdowns. Besides those three, I like the Jazz.

Beyond that, I wonder what Carlos Boozer makes of the election. Like John McCain he was born abroad on a military base and like Sarah Palin he’s from Alaska. Indeed, he was probably the most famous Alaskan in the world until Palin’s rise to fame and infamy displaced him. And Palin, of course, was a sports reporter back in the day. And you’ve got to figure that when Boozer was at Juneau-Douglas High School that he was much better at basketball than anyone else in Alaska. Did she take note of her state’s rising athletic star? How does Boozer feel about his home state governor coming close to the pinnacle of national power? I want answers!