Asked to Abandon NBA Dream for Alternate Career, Olympic Medalist Carlos Boozer Unveils 29 YO Demoralizing Encounter

The world of the NBA is filled with underdog stories. Athletes who, when they were starting out, nobody trusted in. The story of 2x All-Star Carlos Boozer is another one of those underdog stories. Born in Aschaffenburg, West Germany, Boozer had a vision for himself of what he wished to accomplish in this life. However, there were people around him who tried to discard his dreams in the beginning.

The Olympic gold medalist recently unveiled a demoralizing 29-year-old encounter in his life and explained what helped him fuel his dreams.

A failed attempt to undermine the NBA dreams of Carlos Boozer

While there are several athletes in the league who can boast a championship ring they’ve won, only a few can call themselves an Olympic gold medalist. Boozer falls into the latter category as he got a chance to represent his country and he did it in style. The 41-year-old was part of the legendary Redeem Team, a supergroup of NBA athletes who were assembled to bring back international glory to the USA.

A documentary on the Redeem Team was released recently which refreshed the memory of that iconic team in the minds of hoop fans. However, the former Utah Jazz star had his fair share of troubles on his road to becoming the international champion.

The 41-year-old recently revealed that while growing up, he had a demoralizing encounter with his seventh-grade teacher. Boozer recalled that once the teacher was going around the class, asking everyone what they wished to become when they grew up. While everyone had their answers, Boozer said that he was going to play in the NBA.

To which the teacher responded, “You should lower your expectations. You’d probably work at the local gas station… or the grocery store.”?At the young age of 12, Boozer had the wisdom to understand that the teacher was trying to undermine his abilities.

Watch This Story: Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Naomi Osaka join hands to push the Marvel franchise

Boozer said during the interview that he comes from a family where seeing bigger dreams is encouraged. More importantly, he had been conditioned from the very beginning to chase his dreams as well. Despite being turned down by his teacher at such a young age, Boozer kept working on his intuition and goals, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Read More: Former LeBron James Teammate Blames Media for Manipulating Criticism of Rookie Superstar

He had a 15-year-long career in the NBA. In that time, he made two All-Star appearances, scored 13,976 points, and brought the gold back to America. So it’s safe to say that his teacher would be regretting undermining Boozer’s dreams.