Bosh on LeBron’s matchup vs. Heat: ’It’s fascinating.’ And Bam’s Kobe tribute continues
It has been six years since LeBron James left the Miami Heat as a free agent in 2014. In the past six years, the Heat has been through a lot.
Heat All-Star forward Chris Bosh’s NBA playing career came to a sudden end in 2016 because of blood clot issues.
Dwyane Wade, who is considered the greatest player in Heat history, left the organization as a free agent in 2016 and then returned to the Heat in 2018 before retiring at the end of last season.
The Heat signed center Hassan Whiteside to a four-year, $98 million max contract in the summer of 2016 and later traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2019 as part of the sign-and-trade deal that brought Jimmy Butler to Miami.
The Heat missed the playoffs in three of the previous five seasons.
But after all of that, Miami is back in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in franchise history. The Heat opens the Finals against James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.
“It’s amazing. The organization is always trying to win,” Bosh said during an interview with the Miami Herald. “Always, always. It’s more of a habit, as opposed to just trying to stack draft picks and stuff like that. It’s habits, it’s philosophies, it’s hard work, it’s dedication. Yeah, they stick to it. But it wasn’t looking very good for them.”
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers have not made the playoffs without James on their roster since the 1997-98 season.
“I think Pat [Riley] should definitely be the Executive of the Year, it’s not even a question,” Bosh said. “[Erik Spoelstra] arguably could have been Coach of the Year this year. But just the moves that Pat made to really just keep the team in contention, but also improve. Usually you have some contracts and players that are injured and stuff like that, it’s kind of like a death sentence in the league. Somehow, someway, these guys figured out how to turn things around and not only turn things around, but turn them around quickly. Then bring in Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala, and boom you’re a championship contender with a lot of toughness. You have to give credit where credit is due.”
Bosh, whose No. 1 jersey was retired by the Heat in March 2019, said he has not texted or called the team’s current players much because “they are being bombarded with texts from all angles.” But Bosh did reach out to a few people within the organization after the Heat clinched the Eastern Conference championship on Sunday night.
As for the James vs. Heat story line, Bosh called it “fascinating.”
“It’s basketball at its finest. There are no distractions. There’s nowhere to run,” Bosh said. “It’s just two great teams that are going to lock horns. As far as ‘Bron is concerned, he has been in the league so long. Of course, this is another stone that hasn’t been turned over. But yeah, there’s going to be a lot of emotions there having such a rich history, although brief, with the organization. Then seeing that same organization in the Finals, Pat being there, Spo, Kobe’s spirit is definitely there.
“Just kind of the story line, it’s fascinating and it’s really, really interesting. I’m really excited just to see some great basketball. That makes for some emotions going crazy, and that’s what’s going to be fun about it. I can’t wait to see how they handle everything and really what happens.”
After James left Miami to return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014 and broke up the Big 3, the Heat re-signed Bosh to a five-year, $118 million contract to make him the centerpiece of its core in the post-LeBron era.
Riley admitted to an immediate feeling of anger after James left the Heat. And James has said in the past that one of his biggest motivations after leaving Miami was that “there were some people that I trusted and built relationships with in those four years [who] told me I was making the biggest mistake of my career. And that [expletive] hurt me.”
James was asked Tuesday whether winning a championship against the Heat, Riley and Spoelstra would mean more to him than the others he has won.
“Absolutely not,” James answered. “It’s no extra meaning to winning a championship, no matter who you’re playing against. It’s already hard enough to even reach the Finals, to be in this position. If you’re able to become victorious out of the Finals, it doesn’t matter who it’s against.”
But Bosh knows how important this series is to both sides, and not just because of James’ history with the Heat.
“We play this game to win. We don’t play to be in second place. You play to get a ring, you know,” Bosh said. “That’s what it is. Being in the league for all those number of years, you’re going to play your friends, your enemies, your coworkers, your former boss, everything. So it’s important to both [James and Riley]. Don’t get it twisted.
“I know it will make it more dramatic if people think that one side doesn’t like the other. I just like to think in an effort to be great and continue to be great, this is what you want to do. This is what you want to accomplish, and you do what you have to do. Pat is pretty much, one of the greatest, if not the greatest. Forget executive, forget player, forget coaches, he’s just one of the great people that the NBA has ever seen. If not, the greatest. And he’s trying to add to his resume. And ‘Bron is trying to be one of the greatest players, if not the greatest to ever play the game, he wants to win another one.”
BAM’S TRIBUTE TO KOBE
Heat center Bam Adebayo grew up as a Kobe Bryant fan. In the wake of Bryant’s death, Adebayo has made it a point to wear the Kobe VII sneakers for most games.
That has continued during the Heat’s playoff run, and it will even continue in the Finals against Bryant’s Lakers.
“Obviously you know what he means to the game, because you saw everybody when they heard about it. Nobody wanted to believe it,” Adebayo said of Bryant being killed in a January helicopter crash. “It still doesn’t feel real to this day. But you see the effect that he had on the world. Me growing up, I was a Kobe fan, Kobe fanatic, and just getting — just being able to just wear his shoes, it’s my favorite shoe to play in. I’ve been playing in them this whole playoff run, so can’t stop now.”
▪ In addition to Heat postgame coverage immediately following each game, Fox Sports Sun will also provide pregame coverage during the Finals on either Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Sun. The pregame show begins 90 minutes before tip-off. All Finals games will be broadcast exclusively on ABC.
