At GW, Bozeman finds right balance

Mike Bozeman is having trouble tracing how he got here - to this sun-filled office in Foggy Bottom with the 42-inch flat screen and the pictures of smiling people on the walls.

Did it begin with family - with the way he chose basketball because he idolized his older brother and would do anything just to be near him?

Did it start with service - that feeling that always has tugged at him and told him he was called to help others?

Or did it just start with the game - the way he loved playing, watching, just talking about basketball?

The problem is that somewhere the three got all tangled up and blended together, and now the 41-year-old finds himself at the helm of one of the premier women’s basketball programs not knowing how he arrived at George Washington.

So what the heck? He figures he just will start the story and hope he finds the beginning.

Come to think of it, he says, it started here. Well, not here but real close - just “a stone’s throw” away - at the old Ira Bozeman’s three sons.

Or maybe it began a little further out, in the backyard in Prince George’s County where Mike and his brothers, Todd and Danny, used to play basketball.

Or maybe on the playground blacktops, where Todd and Mike went after Danny died of complications from diabetes, seeking solace in one another and the game they shared. It was there - sitting mesmerized on the sidelines as Todd dueled with Danny Ferry - that Mike began to see his brother as a hero.

Or maybe later at NCAA tournament and used pregame introductions to recognize his idol on national television.

“Yo!” Mike screamed into the camera at center court of the Pontiac Silverdome. “What up Todd?”

No matter how far apart, the game always brought them together.

Then the feeling hit him. It told him he needed to help people. So he moved back to Prince George’s County and became a police officer. Vice, narcotics, hostage negotiator, it didn’t matter - he would do anything. He had to work hard for his wife, Wendy, and daughter Nikki, who was growing up fast.

So for a while it was all about providing for those he loved and giving back. But basketball had a way of sliding in there. Like the night he was on a stakeout and his pager wouldn’t stop beeping. It was Todd. What could his idol - now the coach at California - possibly want right now?

“YO!” came the voice on the other end of the pay phone receiver. “I just signed Jason Kidd!”

Story Continues →