As a two-time NBA All-Star, Carlos Boozer knows a thing or two about competition. After nearly a decade of retirement, Boozer has gone from the basketball court to Kings Court, where the women vying for his, Thaddeus “Titus O’Neil” Bullard, and Tyson Beckford‘s hearts bring competitiveness to a whole other level.
According to Boozer, producers for Kings Court reached out to him “a couple of times” before he finally decided to sign on to the dating reality show. After a “great conversation” with producer Will Packer, Boozer thought to himself, “Hey, what the heck? What’s the worst that could happen?” Of course, his three children laid some ground rules before he jetted off to the King’s Castle.
“They were like, ‘Dad, I don’t want to see you making out on TV,’” Boozer told Decider in a recent Zoom interview. “But they were excited for me. My kids want me to be happy. So they were like, ‘Look, at the end of the day, maybe you find somebody, maybe you don’t, but I’m sure you’ll have a good experience.’”
So far, Boozer has really been hitting it off with Janaye Robinson, a 32-year-old entrepreneur from Florida. However, their seemingly solid connection has been put to the test ever since a matchmaker with an extremely high success rate matched Boozer with Jennifer Marckx.
“Without letting the cat out of the bag, it’s very interesting. We have some interesting encounters coming up that you’ll probably enjoy,” Boozer teased of his current love triangle, before adding, “At the moment, I’m spending so much quality time with Janaye. But this matchmaker has literally picked [Jennifer] for me. I [was] being a chicken by not going over there and hanging out with her more often … I try to fix that coming up.”
During our chat with Boozer, he also shared how he deals with potential prospects Googling his past, the drama surrounding exiled queen Lexy Gray, and what he thought of his fellow Kings and their journeys to finding love. Check out the full interview below.
DECIDER: How was this show pitched to you and what made you decide to sign on?
CARLOS BOOZER: They reached out to me a couple of times and had a preliminary conversation with everybody. I was recently out of a relationship, and I was kind of hesitant because I was healing and trying to figure out what I was into and where my headspace was at. I had a great conversation with Will Packer. He’s one of our producers. He made me feel really comfortable about it. And then I was like, “Hey, what the heck? What’s the worst that could happen?” So I jumped in and signed on.
What did your kids think of you going on a reality dating show?
Yeah, they had some rules. They were like, “Dad, I don’t want to see you making out on TV.” But they were excited for me. My kids want me to be happy. So they were like, “Look, at the end of the day, maybe you find somebody, maybe you don’t, but I’m sure you’ll have a good experience.” So my kids were very supportive.
Are you a fan of any other reality dating shows?
I’ve never watched a dating show before. Before I signed on to King’s Court, I did watch the first two seasons of Queen’s Court just to get a vibe and get an idea of how they were filming the show before I decided to say yes. But that was more like homework for me than watching a show.
There’s definitely a lot of competition in this show. How did the competitiveness among the queens compare to what you experienced on the basketball court?
Oh, [they’re] not even close to being the same. But I will say that it gets a little heated, though. There are moments where you can tell that there are girls who are vying for some of the Kings’ attention. They want their time. Obviously, you saw the list with Tyson. There were a lot of girls that were interested in getting to know him. He also had his interests in most of those same girls as well. So there was mutual interest there. But you definitely saw some claws come out.
I have to ask you about Lexy, since she brought a lot of chaos into the king’s castle in those early episodes. Were you surprised that she Googled you? Is that a situation that you’ve run into before?
In the real world, I have. It’s different because usually in the real world, we know who they are. We know their last name. We can look them up as well. But in this environment, we only had their first name. We couldn’t look them up, but they could look us up. And what I told her, I said, “Lexy, this is part of my past and I’ve healed from that. I’ve done real work on myself to be a better human being, a better man.” And I told her, “If you would’ve come to me, we could have had a bonding moment over that. But you went the other route, which wasn’t very favorable.” It was not something that I would want in my life. If I’m picking out a queen, I want my queen to come to me and talk to me about us and we can build on that, which is what Janaye ended up doing. But it was interesting. I think ultimately it was one of those situations where we got a chance to get to know who is there and for what reason. And for me, that was easy to eliminate.
When Janaye came to you about it, I thought you handled it so well. Did it take you a long time to figure out how to talk about that in such a mature way?
I think sometimes we all go through stuff, right? Whether it’s our childhood traumas, adult traumas, relationship traumas, whatever it might be. If you actually deal with it, then you can speak on it without it having some kind of attachment to you. I’m in that space where I’ve healed from that situation. I’ve talked about it in my book that I came out with. I have no problem talking about it on camera, obviously. I have no problem talking about it with Lexy at the elimination dinner. My biggest thing was for all people just to know, like, whatever you go through, there’s avenues and people out there that will help you. I’m a fan of therapy. Therapy helped me a ton when I got divorced, and it’s helped me even now. [I have] my therapist just to make sure my mental space is OK, because I think mental health is a real issue that most people don’t address.
Men, take notes! You’ve been in the public eye for a long time. Would you say you have a good gauge on who’s in it for clout and who’s in it for real romance?
One-hundred percent. Us Kings, because we’re in the spotlight all the time, we get introduced to people every day. Even this morning, I probably met like 100 people. You get a chance to know who’s real or who’s not pretty quickly. It’s a very rare environment that we’re in where we’re always meeting people, and you get a chance to see who’s genuine and who’s not. In this situation, with the filming of the show, we learned pretty quickly who was in it for the right reasons and who wasn’t.
Janaye was the first queen to really catch your eye. I have to say, she has been much shadier in her confessionals than she has been in your conversations. Did that surprise you at all watching it back?
I’m interested. I like that side of her. I’m watching the show as it’s coming out and we’re seeing some of the confessionals and I’m like, “OK!” At the end of the day, we filmed this over a certain amount of time, and you don’t get a chance to know everything about the person, or about these people that we’re trying to get to know. So, when you see some of these interviews–I’m watching interviews with Arielle and interviews with Felicia and I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t know she said that.” It’s cool to be able to watch the show and then remember what happened as we filmed it and see what they were thinking on the inside. So, I actually enjoy watching some of the confessionals.
It’s funny because she’s very demure around you, and then she’s a little feisty in her interviews. It makes it interesting.
It does make it very interesting. Honestly, it was also interesting hearing Jenny’s perspective, because I didn’t hear any of her interviews either until I watched the show. So it’s been enlightening, I’ll tell you that.
The matchmaker hooked you up with Jennifer, another queen you hit it off with. What was it about her that you liked?
Without letting the cat out of the bag, it’s very interesting. We have some interesting encounters coming up that you’ll probably enjoy. When we meet the matchmaker, it’s very rare that somebody tells you [who you’re going to be with]. Like, 87% [success rate]? That’s like a B+. That’s pretty accurate. So it was one of those things where I was talking to Thad and talking to Tyson before we met them, like, “We really might meet the person that we’re supposed to be with for the rest of our lives. How crazy?” I’ve obviously never reached out to a matchmaker before this, or anything like that. So it was an experience, I’ll say that.
In the most recent episode, you called yourself a 6-foot 9 chicken. How will we see this love triangle between you, Jennifer and Janaye play out?
At the moment, I’m spending so much quality time with Janaye. But this matchmaker has literally picked this woman for me. I [was] being a chicken by not going over there and hanging out with her more often. You have to watch some more episodes, but I try to fix that coming up.
Liliana really laid into Tyson at the elimination dinner party, but I do think she might’ve had a point. Do you think he’s ready for love? Or is he just enjoying all this attention from the ladies?
I think Tyson’s very rare. He was in the top 50 beautiful people that ever walked the planet, or something. He got awarded. He’s very handsome. He’s used to women chasing him. This environment is no different, right? He’s interested in six or seven women, there’s probably eight or nine women interested in him, and he’s trying to find time to fit all in. So in my personal opinion, I think it’s a little difficult on both sides. These women want all the time that has to be spent with them, which is not realistic in this environment. Because in the real world, you go on a date and it’s just you and that other person for the entire [time]. In this environment, you’re literally watching the person that you’re going after date somebody else right in front of you. That’s a very uncomfortable situation. I think Tyson in this moment is processing how he processes. He’s trying to spend as much time with everybody as he can, but he’s just one man. I’m gonna be honest, he does have some women who are very competitive coming after [him]. They’re very A-type personalities who want what they want. So it gets pretty interesting.
In the midseason trailer, we see Thaddeus use the “L” word with Arielle. Was that something you ever did during the course of the show? Or are you more of a slow burn?
For me personally, once the connection is there, I’m excited about the possibility. And then for Thaddeus, I don’t want to speak for Thad, of course, but I think he really hit it off with a couple of people. Arielle was definitely one of them, especially early.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of Kings Court air Sundays at 9p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
