Is Chris Bosh Willing To Be A Sidekick?
Regular Bucket reader Brian posted a comment about the “new” article on NBA.com that reveals that Chris Bosh doesn’t want to be the #2 option on some team — he feels he’s good enough to be The Man on a championship squad. I wrote a long response and decided I should just turn it into a post, with a few more things added.
The first time I heard about Chris Bosh not wanting to play sidekick was in the middle of the season when TrueHoop had an article on it. Thus, at that point I figured there’d be no way he’d come to NY w/LeBron (I think I may’ve even posted that somewhere on Buckets). However, not to be quoting early Emilio Estevez classics, but That Was Then, This Is Now.
After the Raps failed to even make the post-season, everything I read seemed to indicate that Bosh was no longer quite so adamant about being The Man. So I was darn surprised to see a current article stating in even stronger terms that he still wouldn’t be a #2. But then I looked more closely at the article and saw:
“I don’t want to be mentioned as an addition to a team,” Bosh said PRIOR to the season .
The bold-facing is mine, but that’s kind of a big thing that’s only mentioned at that one point. All the actual quotes are from before the season, but the implication is that these are new things that he’s just come out and said. However, the only thing that directly references recent thoughts is:
Bosh hasn’t changed that stance, adding recently that he’s making his decision separate from LeBron James or anyone else.
The thing is, they offer no current quotes from now where he explicitly states that. Sportswriters looove to turn innocuous little statements into stories. So like if he was asked, “Are you gonna make your decision based on what LeBron does?” Of course he’d respond, “No, I’m going to make my decision based on what’s right for me and my family.” That ain’t the same as saying “I’m not interested in playing with him.” Likewise if they asked him if he still thinks he can be the #1 option on a championship team, of course he’d still say yes.
Anyway, the point is that in the last few months I haven’t read any quotes (or seen any videos) where he’s come out and reiterated those thoughts, so I’ve gotten the impression he’s now much more open to the possibility. I mean when he did that video segment it was pre-season last year and people thought the Raps could end up as high as #4 in the Eastern Conference. In fact, a piece published on TrueHoop this weekend seems to better indicate Bosh’s current mind-set:
Late last week [Bosh] talked to SNY about the chance to play for the Knicks with LeBron. “Any time you have the opportunity to play with certain guys, you have to take that into consideration,” Bosh said. “When it all goes down, [LeBron is] gonna be one of the all-time greats. At the same time, I can’t just sit around and wait. I have to be proactive with my choices and what’s gonna make me happy. I have to make sure I take my time and make the right decision.”
Hmm, that kinda sounds like what I wrote above (which I made up off the top of my head earlier when responding to Brian’s comment). Bosh has to say he can’t just sit around and wait, that he has to be proactive — it’s what any top players should say and should do. But it doesn’t, by any means, imply as the NBA.com article states, that Bosh still only wants to be The Man. The article is a hack job, regurgitating and quoting a video from last summer!
That said, I don’t believe the opposite is true either: that Bosh is now definitely looking to be a #2 to either Brony or Wade. He could go either way. In fact, if he does wanna be #1 AND have a shot at a ring, I think Chicago is actually a much more intriguing fit for him than LeBron (both LBJ and Derrick Rose like to slash, so they duplicate each other a bit). Plus Bosh has never played with a strong defensive center who can rebound, so he’s gotta be greatly intrigued about the help he’d get from Joakim Noah around the hoop. With that supporting cast, Bosh would indeed have a shot to be a contendah with him as the main man. The one significant weakness of Chicago ironically is the one strength of Toronto: three-point shooting. If Bosh gets it down low, other teams will double, packing the paint, daring Rose, Noah, Luol Deng, and Kirk Hinrich to hit outside shots and none of ’em can consistently do that from long-range.
In that case, maybe he should look at that team in the tiny town called Manhattan where they’ve got three solid riflemen named Gallo, TD & Billy Walker who all impressively shot over 38% from downtown…
Yes, I’m an unrepentant homer.