Carlos Boozer is prepared to take another leap at love as one of the bachelors on Bravo’s Kings Court.
The two-time NBA All-Star, Olympic gold and bronze medalist, and Duke University national champion joins fellow kings Thaddeus Bullard, also known as WWE legend Titus O’Neil, and Tyson Beckford, one of the most successful supermodels of all time, as they look for their queen.
What he’s learned about love from hosts Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete
The new show, a spinoff of the original Peacock dating series Queens Court, is also hosted by Holly Robinson Peete and her husband, Rodney Peete. Boozer noted that their love served as an encouraging example while on his journey to find his perfect match.
“Holly and Rodney were great guys for us, they’ve done Queens Court, but in real life, in the real world, they’re 30 years married,” Boozer told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “A lot of conversations were off camera, where they were giving us thoughts and advice, and some of that stuff is to just be in the moment. I think a lot of times, just as human beings, it’s just a natural thing where you’re always looking back to remember some of the mistakes that you made in a relationship, so to speak, or you’re looking so far ahead, like, this is what I want out of a relationship. Sometimes we forget to be present. That was really good advice that Holly and Rodney gave me personally, to just be in the moment. Be where your feet are. Let it flow, and see what happens, just be in the moment. I had a really great experience by doing that.”
Being an example as a proud father of four
As a father of four, and someone who has already been married twice, Boozer said he wasn’t afraid to open his heart back up to find love, but he was very aware that his children would be watching him along the way.
“Three of my sons are in college now, and my daughter’s about to be in first grade,” he said. “It was important to me that they got to know what was going on, and they were very supportive. They were watching the show. They were like, ‘We don’t want to see no public signs of affection,’ none of that, but they’re also super excited for me. They want me to have the opportunity to find love. They want to see their dad happy, and I appreciate that.”
Boozer added, “But then also, on a bigger note, just to set the example of how to treat a woman or how to talk to a woman. For example, in Episode 2, when Lexi brings up my past, I had that conversation with all four of my kids already, so they know the mistakes that I made, what I had to go through to be a better person and not be the same individual. So I was very comfortable talking about it to Lexi. And I let her know, like, if you would have come to me, we could have had a nice bonding moment. But she went in a different route, which makes you not that attractive to me anymore. I wish her the best of luck, and I hope she finds the king that she’s looking for; it just wasn’t me at that time.”
Boozer’s signature move to winning in love
Boozer knows a thing or two about playing on a team, and he said that there’s a lot of symmetry between building bonds on the court with his teammates and working toward that chemistry to thrive with a potential partner.
“Trust is a very important thing on the court — and off the court, with your partner. You gotta have belief in one another,” Boozer said. “There’s so many similarities. Basically, you’re signing up to be a part of a team when you sign up to be in a relationship, and you want to have those founding blocks because you want to have trust, you want to have dependability. You want to be able to know that when you go through the fire, whether that’s in a tough game and you’re in Game 7 in the playoffs, or you’re going through a tough moment in your relationship, that no matter what, you guys can withstand the heat.”
He also reflected on how to win in sports and in love.
“I want a slam dunk, home run, all the analogies. Honestly, being a professional athlete, it’s very hard to get in the NBA, and it’s very hard to stay in the NBA. But the most important part, you know — we all glorify the end goal, like, getting there. What we don’t necessarily glorify is the journey. And when you fall in love with the process, like, every single day, Monday through Sunday, and then do it all over again on Monday — sharpening your skills, getting better at what you do, being the best shape you could be in — you pour so much into your dream that you can actually make it.”
“It’s the same thing in a relationship,” Boozer said. “You got to keep pouring in. One of the things my mom and dad told me was that even after you get who you’re looking for, you know, we’re men, natural hunters, we’re always trying to find somebody. When you find the person that you actually want to spend your life with, you got to keep chasing her like you don’t already have her, meaning, just keep pouring into what you want.”
