Just a few weeks ago I was writing about spotting Chris Bosh having dinner in LA with Dwyane Wade, thinking that the Heat would be pretty dangerous with a Wade-Bosh one-two punch. Knicks fans were probably thinking that a LeBron-Bosh combination would be just as lethal. Lakers fans have been contemplating a potential Andrew Bynum for Chris Bosh trade. Now, it appears as if we can scratch all those plans. Much like Brian Giles who rejected a trade from the last place Padres to the wild card Red Sox, Bosh is making it known that being “the man” is his main goal. From an interview with NBA.com via Sports by Brooks Live, check out Bosh’s surprising remarks:
“I don’t want to be mentioned as an addition to a team. I want to be mentioned as the guy that people want to center their team around.
“I’m not an addition. I’m a centerpiece. I have to have that confidence in myself, and I want people to know that, because I’m not somebody that helps out. I’m the guy you get like, ‘Yo, we’re going to win a championship, you’re gonna take us there.’
“I want to hold onto that because I think every kid when they dream about playing basketball, they don’t dream about being a role player. They dream about being the man. I have that position in Toronto and to give that up and go somewhere else to be an addition would kinda defeat the purpose of my dreams.”
I’ve said it many times before that athletes should have confidence in themselves and their abilities, but you also have to have a sense of reality. The reality is that the Raptors cannot compete with the likes of the Lakers, Magic and Celtics. The reality is that you must have several stars on your team to compete for a championship and last I checked there weren’t star players eager to make their way to Toronto to team up with Bosh. In fact, the one who good player who did sign there now wants out.
Chris Bosh is a very fine player and the Raptors have the potential to be a good team. The bottom line is they’ve only been a first round playoff team with him as their star, and much like KG realized in Minnesota, if you want to win big, you have to share the spotlight with other stars. Bosh will have to check his seemingly growing ego if he wants to accomplish more than being on a decent playoff team throughout his career. The good news for Toronto fans is that it sounds more and more like he might re-sign. At least that’s a plus.
Sources:
Bosh wanting to be ‘the man’ in free agency [NBA.com]
Sports by Brooks Live
