Ask Cayden Boozer when the last time he and twin brother, Cameron, had lost a tournament, and it takes a minute for him to remember. He pauses, looks into the air for a second and ponders.
Eventually, the 17-year-old point guard phenom has his answer. He mentions a popular in-season tournament in Florida that his high school team had lost the last two seasons, as well as an event his high school team had dropped in Arizona during the summer after his freshman year. They still eat at him, he says.
The one thing that’s hard to find on the Boozer twins’ loaded basketball résumé is losses. The twins have won three straight state championships at Christopher Columbus High in Miami, a school that had never won one before they arrived. They’ve led their AAU program, Nightrydas Elite, to Peach Jam championships (the biggest event of the summer) at the 15U, 16U and 17U level, becoming the first team ever to sweep all three years. Cameron and Cayden each have two gold medals from playing with USA Basketball, first at the U16 Americas tournament and then at the U17 World Cup this summer. And individually, Cameron has two Florida Mr. Basketball awards to his name and a Gatorade National Player of the Year award.
Together, Cameron and Cayden have conquered the youth basketball scene like few others in recent memory. Now, the sons of NBA all-star Carlos Boozer are ready to take the next step on their long-forecasted path to the pros: college basketball. The twins have committed to Duke, the same school their father played at more than two decades ago. And just like their dad, they have their sights set on bringing home a national title before heading to the NBA.
“If that’s not our standard, we’re selling ourselves short,” Cameron says.
The Cameron and Cayden Boozer story begins at Emory hospital in Atlanta, where CeCe Boozer was desperate for a solution to help her baby, Carmani, who had been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and was already experiencing dysplasia in his hands and feet. A doctor at Emory told her about success he was having using bone marrow transplants to treat sickle cell, and the best chance for a bone marrow match is from a sibling. The Boozers didn’t want to risk having another child with sickle cell though, so they went through the in vitro fertilization process, allowing them to choose embryos that were a bone marrow match and didn’t have sickle cell. Two embryos were a match, and both were implanted. Those embryos became Cameron and Cayden, fraternal twins born in July 2007. Three weeks later, Carmani had his transplant. He’s now healthy and a college athlete himself, playing baseball at the University of Fort Lauderdale.
“The idea of ‘I am my brother’s keeper’ pretty much defines our family,” CeCe says. “That’s who they’ve been since they were born, blessed to be able to take care of their brother.”
CeCe was intent on the boys forming their own identities, not just as more than the son of an NBA star but as more than “the Boozer twins”. They tried out soccer, baseball, football, even ice hockey, so basketball wasn’t fait accompli. And while Cameron and Cayden were always on the same teams and were largely inseparable, CeCe made sure they weren’t the twins in matching outfits that got grouped together into one.
“They’ve fought for [their identity] their entire life,” CeCe says. “Even though they did everything together, I made sure that they were both allowed to be their own person.”
That was especially important as their basketball careers started to take off. The summer after his freshman year of high school, Cameron was invited to the NBPA Top 100 camp, attended by a number of NBA scouts and even a few decision-makers in front offices. Despite playing against older players at just 14 years old, Cam shined at the camp, wowing college coaches and NBA teams with his polish and productivity at the forward position. From then on, one NBA scout told Sports Illustrated this summer, scouts were paying extra-close attention to the Boozers and the rest of the 2025 high school class, even if it meant watching 15- and 16-year-olds play instead of prospects far closer to the NBA. He was quickly pegged as a generational prospect and a likely high pick in the NBA draft, even if that draft was nearly four years away.
Watching all the praise be heaped on his brother could have been hard for Cayden, the smaller brother at 6’4” who wasn’t anointed a future star as quickly. But CeCe says Cayden handled his brother’s smashing success with “so much grace and positivity” and eventually, Cayden established himself as an elite prospect in his own right. Few high school point guards control the floor in the same way Cayden does: He dictates pace masterfully, manipulates defenses with his eyes and never gets sped up. He’s an elite passer, leading the Nike EYBL circuit in assists each of the last two summers, and his three-point shot has shown continued improvement. Plus, wins are a point guard’s stat in largely the same way they are a quarterback’s stat, and no one has won more in youth basketball than Cayden Boozer. He may not be regularly thrown around in No. 1 pick conversations the way Cameron is, but his five-star status has been well earned.
“I never really thought of it as ‘I’m just the other brother,’ Cayden says. “I knew I was a good player and I’ve tried to become better each and every year. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a lot better since my freshman year and I’ve gotten the attention I didn’t get before.”
Cameron isn’t the first prospect to be labeled a future NBA star before he could drive, especially in the social media area. Many stagnate in their physical development; others get wide-eyed with their newfound fame and lose sight of what got them there. None of that has happened with the taller Boozer twin, who is 6’9”. That’s where the maturity of being raised around NBA stars comes into play: There’s no sense that the twins have “made it” yet.
“Being surrounded by a basketball family that has been through the entire journey and continues to be in this business, you tend to look at things from a very different perspective,” CeCe says. “I think a lot of people, especially in the high school journey, get really caught up in the hype of the moment. [Cameron and Cayden] knew from the beginning that this is not the ultimate moment.
“There are a lot of players that plateau in high school,” Cameron says. “My biggest thing is not being one of those guys.”
Cameron has the drive of a budding superstar. His mom describes him as “stoic” and “serious,” not exactly the traditional adjectives to use for a 17-year-old. Without Cayden, the “loud and rambunctious” twin, CeCe says Cameron “would probably never go to the movies or do regular kid things.” At 17, he’s already thinking bigger than just basketball stardom, saying he’s “not doing the right things” if he’s only known for his on-court exploits with sights set on making an impact on people with special needs and mental health issues before he’s done.
That personality translates almost to his demeanor on the floor: He’s unflappable, if not almost robotic at times with his quiet dominance. His game isn’t designed for Instagram likes, though highlight reels of him and his brother taking over games do plenty well on the platform. There’s little wasted motion, no drama, just production and wins. There’s a comparison to be made between him and his father—long a non-nonsense guy whose numbers were louder than his highlight reels—though Cameron’s ceiling is higher. Perhaps the best word to describe teenage Cameron Boozer is inevitable: Suit up against him, and he will win… and likely tally 20+ points and 10+ rebounds in the process. In the inexact science of evaluating high school basketball talent, Cameron is as close to a sure thing as there is.
And yet Boozer right now is listed as the No. 2 player in his high school class in the 247Sports composite rankings, behind wing AJ Dybantsa from Massachusetts. Does that bother Cameron? Not outwardly, at least. He rolled his eyes when his brother was asked to present the case for him as No. 1 in the class, and when asked about it himself he gave his own “rankings don’t really mean much” spiel that would make an old-school college coach proud.
The external pressure and expectations won’t fade any by choosing Duke, perhaps the college game’s biggest brand. Plus, the twins will have to contend with the added pressure of walking in the footsteps of their father, who scored more than 1,500 points and went a combined 95–13 in three seasons playing for Mike Krzyzewski. That said, those accolades didn’t mean this recruitment was always wired for the Blue Devils; the decision came down to the wire between Duke and the twins’ hometown school in Miami.
“What [Carlos] has done at Duke, of course it means something, but for us in terms of recruiting and going through everything, it didn’t mean anything at all,” Cameron Boozer says.
Staying together for college wasn’t always guaranteed (the twins expressed willingness to split up if the right situation for each was in different places), but largely found themselves in agreement as they worked through their college options. That was music to the ears of CeCe, who joked she “secretly [had] fingers crossed” that the twins would stick together for one more stop on their basketball journey. But next year at Duke could be the last time Cameron and Cayden team up, at least for a while, given that they’ll have no control of where they’re drafted into the NBA.
“Since I’ve always had my brother by my side, I’ve known that I can get through anything because I’ve always had someone I can trust,” Cayden says. “I won’t be able to have that if we’re not on the same team in the NBA, which is probably unlikely, but I’m going to savor these moments while they last.”
Before that last dance as twin teammates, Cameron and Cayden will spend this year focused on cementing their high school legacies by winning a fourth straight state championship. Well, that and video games: Cameron, Cayden and Carmani are very invested in their NBA 2K MyCareer that they play together.
“We’re pretty good,” Cayden says. “We don’t lose that often, I’ll just say that.”
Somehow, that isn’t a surprise.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cameron and Cayden Boozer Will Continue Their Brotherly Bond at Duke.
