This marks the end of a soap opera which has been going on for about as long as Boozer has been a Bull. Signed to a long-term deal right after the Big 3 came together in Miami in 2010, not everybody seemed impressed with this power forward who was known to have above-average offense and defense which was below par. Initially, it didn't seem like too much of a problem as the Bulls earned the best record in the NBA during his first season and went all the way to the Eastern Conference finals. Sure, Boozer had a few shortcomings to his game, but that would surely become less of a problem over time, right?
However, it soon became clear that for all of the offense he was able to provide, this lack of defense was becoming too apparent on a Tom Thibodeau team which prided itself on that part of basketball. Scoring was big for a team which didn't seem to do it much, but more often than not, he was beaten in the post far more than we would have liked to see. Plus, few found the justification for him making a superstar's salary when he was never even an All-Star during his four seasons in Chicago. Besides, this team could have done something else if they had more salary room, which Boozer was unnecessarily taking up.
His ultimate demise was apparent when Thibodeau began benching him for entire fourth quarters in favor of Taj Gibson this past season. The man in charge recognized how big of a problem he was on a team which needed defense to close out games. They didn't have the right closeout scorer with Derrick Rose nursing a second devastating knee injury, so they had to practically rely solely on the strength that made them distinguishable. When one player can't contribute to that, he's not going to see the floor in crunch time.
For all of Boozer's deserved criticism though, I still think he got a bum wrath here in Chicago more often than not. He rarely missed a start and was good for a double-double each night, even when he wasn't out there in close games at the end. It's tough to find many players in this league who can do those regularly. I won't knock P.J. Brown, Tyson Chandler, Brad Miller, Mike Sweetney and others for what they did for the Bulls in the years before Boozer's arrival as they all did well in their respective roles. However, they never could have hoped to match what Boozer did statistically with such consistency. All the aforementioned big men also played for the Bulls at a time of much lowered expectations, so they got a little bit more of a pass compared to Boozer. On a team that seems to generate stars regularly though, Boozer seemed stuck in neutral compared to when he arrived, which contributed to the heat he regularly took.
He's not even a bad person either. Many times after games, usually at home, Boozer would take to Facebook to celebrate wins, keep his head up after losses and above all, thank the fans for coming out to support the team and remind them to keep the faith. He even tweeted his thanks to the Bulls for this stretch of his career after he was informed of their decision. Yes, he sulked a bit when things weren't going his way, but he was a positive player and person most of the time. In a league where it's easy to get upset over setbacks, he just kept pressing on and hoped he and his team would prove critics wrong. That's a true definition of a team ambassador.
So while Pau Gasol will likely make us forget Boozer a bit come this fall, we can't deny what he brought to the Bulls for the past four seasons. Yes, he was a reminder that the Bulls couldn't get LeBron James or Dwyane Wade that one summer, but you have to give him credit for at least trying to show this team would be just fine anyway. And honestly, if you had told me back then that he would accomplish everything he did here, I'd be just fine. I wouldn't have counted on two devastating injuries of Rose, but otherwise, I would have liked to hear what Boozer would bring. Farewell #5 and don't forget to say hi now and again.
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