In the offseason Carlos Boozer said he would be happy to play for Chicago or Miami. On Monday afternoon as the Utah Jazz officially opened training camp, Boozer made it a point of emphasis that he is happy to be in Utah.

The team posed for pictures as part of media day and conducted a series of interviews at the Zion's Bank Basketball center. The topics ranged from Jazz coach Jerry Sloan talking about his Hall-of-Fame speech, to comments about Andrei Kirilenko adding 20 pounds, to Paul Millsap talking about his new contract, to Ronnie Price explaining how he worked on changing his shot.

But the focus of the day was squarely on Boozer, who has been the focus of an active offseason for the Jazz.

"I thought I was going to get traded. But I'm here, and I'm happy to be here," Boozer said. "Coach (Sloan) wants me to be here, my teammates want me to be here, management brought me back. I'm happy to be here in a Jazz uniform a and not going somewhere else. I'm looking forward to getting started."

Despite an uncertain summer where Boozer had the option to become a free agent and was the subject of numerous trade rumors, he decided to stay with the Jazz even though he was told he in not in the team's long-term plans.

"Of course I was hurt, I felt like I was one of the pieces of the puzzle in trying to get this team where it needed to go," Boozer said. "I was hurt by that, but that's over."

Utah Jazz V.P. Of Basketball Operations explained the situation this way. 'We weren't able to offer a long-term contract at this point. That can be skewed anyway you want it to. I'll take blame in not being absolutely specific on that and dealing with it," he said. "At the same token from a business point of view, Carlos decided to he wanted come back and we're happy to have him back. Now we circle the wagons. This has nothing to do with coach, it's got nothing to do with the rest of the players on the team, this had everything to do with making business decisions."

Boozer will be a free agent at the end of the season and may not finish the season in a Jazz uniform, but for now the Jazz seem content on taking the group they have and making a playoff run.

"We talked about things, but none-the-less what happened with all the trade talks, all the speculation, all the teams that were talked about, I'm here now," Boozer said. "I'm happy to be back. I'm talked to my teammates and we're excited to get going, to start playing basketball and put all this talk behind us."

Boozer's teammates, specifically Deron Williams, didn't seemed fazed by what happened in the summer.

"Everything's good right now. We understand this is a business and what goes on in the summer goes on. Every team goes through things like this, football, basketball, baseball, it happens," he said. "You can't really stress it. We're paid to play this game. We're ready to go here and do our job."

Jazz guard Kyle Korver had some fun with the situation. He cut through the crowd of reporters that surrounded Boozer and put his arm on Boozer and said, "I'm really offended Carlos. You should declare at least kick outs per games for wide open threes," he said with a laugh.

Korver is one of the players who could have been a free agent, but decided to come back to the Jazz for another season. The roster is nearly the same as last year.

The only subtractions from the team were center Jarron Collins, point guard Brevin Knight and Morris Almond. Forward Matt Harpring is out indefinitely (at least six weeks) with knee and ankle injuries. Additions to the team came from the draft. Point guard, Eric Maynor (first-round pick) and forward/center Goran Suton, the team's second round pick, are the two new faces.

It looked like the future of Price was in doubt after the Jazz took Maynor in the draft, but Price was resigned and is looking forward to the season.

"I'm just really excited about this year. We have a young, experienced team," Price said. "I think we have a ton of growth. Everything is on our side. We're looking good. I'm excited. For us it's just fine tuning the little things. We have the talent, we have all the skill, we have all positions filled with guys who can play. We have backup guys who can play. We just need to get the little things fine tuned and getting more consistent with what we do on the court."

In addition to the Jazz regulars, there are several hopefuls that have been invited to Jazz training camp including former Utah Flash player Ronald Dupree.

The Jazz host the Nuggets on Oct. 1 in their preseason opener. Utah opens the regular season at Denver on Oct. 28 and hosts the L.A. Clippers on Oct. 30 in its home opener.