Carlos Boozer, the Jazz's highest-paid and most-anticipated free agent acquisition ever, will not play again this season, the team's trainer said Tuesday. The Jazz's starting power forward, who tonight will sit out his 20th game since injuring his right foot on Valentine's Day, has been ordered by his doctor to wear a protective boot over his right foot for at least three more weeks.

Boozer's condition has improved since he began wearing the boot full-time March 10, and surgery has been ruled out for the time being, trainer Gary Briggs said. But it remains a possibility if the extended rest does not eliminate the discomfort Boozer still feels in his foot.

"He is encouraged that his injury is healing and getting better," said Rob Pelinka, Boozer's agent. "But Carlos is really discouraged, [even] devastated, to find out he won't be able to play basketball again this year."

The irritation, which became inflamed when Boozer landed on another player's foot during a Feb. 14 game in Phoenix, is at an unusual connection in the bones in his foot, a condition that shows up in X-r ys taken when Boozer broke his foot while playing for Duke in 2001 and probably has existed since childhood. In essence, a gap in the bone once filled in with "fibrous tissue," Briggs said, and not bone. That tissue is what causes Boozer pain now, Briggs said, though the pain has greatly lessened since he began wearing the boot.

According to orthopedic specialist Richard Ferkel, Briggs said, "since he played with it this long, if we let it calm down, he should be able to play with it again without surgery."

But Ferkel, who first examined the Jazz forward March 10, wants to completely eliminate the irritation in Boozer's foot before allowing him to begin rehabilitation. That means wearing the boot until his next examination on April 19 - one day before the Jazz's final game.

"Carlos' mind-set all along has been focused on trying to play again as soon as possible," Pelinka said of his client, who was not available for comment. "Carlos is a warrior. He wants to play basketball more than anything, and I could see on his face how disappointed he was. . . . But the doctor told him immobilization is necessary, and he's sticking to this schedule."

It's the end to a tumultuous nine-month stretch of Boozer's NBA career. The third-year forward signed with the Jazz amid a national outcry over the circumstances of his departure from Cleveland, which failed to trigger an option that would have paid Boozer $695,000 this year, then protested publicly when he accepted a $68 million contract with the Jazz.

Boozer's first month in Utah was brilliant - he averaged 22.2 points and 10.3 rebounds in the Jazz's first 10 games - and he contributed 21 double-doubles in the first half of the season. But as the Jazz declined, so too did Boozer's production, and he went into a monthlong slump that prompted owner Larry Miller to publicly chastise him: "Some nights, he has looked like he didn't care that much."

Four days later, Boozer, who earns $10.97 million, played for the last time this season.

Boozer is the third Jazz player in this injury-ruined year to have his season cut short. Guard Raul Lopez injured his left knee one day after Boozer's injury and had season-ending surgery a week later. And Andrei Kirilenko, who missed 26 games with a knee injury in December and January, broke his left wrist last Thursday.

The Jazz, who had counted on Boozer and Kirilenko to form a potent forward tandem, were 11-14 in the few games both played. Utah is 11-34 without one or both.

With his return for the final few games ruled out, the Jazz are focused on rehabilitating Boozer for next season, Briggs said. "We will keep him here after the season until his doctor feels he has tested his foot enough that he's pretty sure this is going to be OK," Briggs said, adding that Boozer's conditioning during the injury has been excellent. "We're not going to let him go home to Miami and call us and tell us how it feels. He'll be here doing rehab."

pmiller@sltrib.com

UPS AND DOWNS

Carlos Boozer with the Utah Jazz - a timeline

JULY 8

* Jazz stun the NBA by reaching agreement with Boozer, who had been widely assumed to be returning to the Cavaliers, to a free-agent contract worth $68 million over six years.

JULY 29

* Boozer formally signs contract, joins Jazz.

NOV. 3

l Boozer scores 27 points on 10-for-13 shooting, plus 11 rebounds and three assists, in his Utah debut, a 104-78 blowout over the Lakers.

NOV. 16

* With the Jazz trailing the expansion Bobcats by 22, Boozer registers a new career-high of 34 points - 24 of them during Utah's frantic second-half rally - to go with 13 rebounds as the Jazz improve to 6-1 with a 107-105 victory.

DEC. 1

* Boozer reaches a new career high with 36 points, but the Jazz fall to .500 for the first time with an overtime loss in Seattle.

JAN. 10

* A 13-point outing in a loss to San Antonio triggers a monthlong slump in which the Jazz's leading scorer, who has reached 20 points 18 times in 35 games, will do so only once in the next 14 games.

FEB. 7

* Frustrated by an overtime loss to New York, in which Boozer shoots an invisible 1-for-6 for five points, Jazz owner Larry Miller stalks into the locker room and angrily admonishes his players.

FEB. 9

* Miller second-guesses the signing of Boozer, saying "I don't know how tough he is," and "some nights, he has looked like he didn't care that much."

FEB. 10

* Miller and Boozer meet face-to-face, and the owner tells the player "he wants me to be here." But Boozer admits that "I was hurt by" the public scolding.

FEB. 11

* Boozer scores 21 points in a 100-82 rout of the T-wolves.

FEB. 14

* After scoring 14 first-half points vs. Phoenix, Boozer lands on another player's foot and injures his right foot, then sits out the second half.

MARCH 2

* With little progress in his rehabilitation, Boozer goes on the injured list.

MARCH 10

* Orthopedic specialist Richard Ferkel examines Boozer and orders him to wear a protective boot on the injured foot for three weeks.

* With Boozer absent, angry Cavaliers fans can only boo his photo on the scoreboard in Jazz's first trip to Cleveland since signing the free agent.

MARCH 28

* Ferkel examines Boozer again, recommends another three weeks in the boot, ending any chance of a return to the Jazz lineup this season.

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