Chris Bosh took unique path to Hall of Fame, but he arrives at peace: ‘I’m happy and healthy’
In an alternate universe, Chris Bosh would currently be preparing for his final NBA season. Instead, he’s preparing for his enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A series of medical issues related to blood clots ended Bosh’s NBA career early in 2016 after 13 seasons. Five years later, Bosh will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday as part of the 2021 class.
The list of other players to be enshrined Saturday includes Paul Pierce, Chris Webber, Ben Wallace, Toni Kukoc, Clarence Jenkins, Bob Dandridge, and former WNBA players Yolanda Griffith and Lauren Jackson. Villanova coach Jay Wright, and former NBA coaches Rick Adelman and Bill Russell, who already is enshrined as a player, are also part of this year’s 16-person Hall of Fame class.
“This is basketball, man. It’s all I ever wanted to do,” Bosh said to the Miami Herald in advance of Saturday’s enshrinement ceremony (7 p.m., NBA TV). “To come to this point in my career and in my life and feel that, man, I can still be playing now. That was always the goal. I wanted to play until I was 37, 38 years old. To have that cut short and still be able to say I’m a Hall of Famer, that’s everything to me.”
Because of the early ending to his playing career, Bosh, 37, is the youngest member of this year’s Hall of Fame class and one of the youngest inductees in NBA history. He learned he was heading to the Hall of Fame when the 2021 class was announced in May.
Bosh was voted into the Hall of Fame in the second year that he was eligible for consideration, as he missed out on becoming a first-ballot inductee when he was not chosen as a finalist for the 2020 enshrinement class that included Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
“I always look at him as the ultimate warrior competitor,” Heat president Pat Riley said of Bosh. “People don’t look at him that way. They think he’s a nice guy and he’s a smart guy and he’s witty and all that stuff. Forget it. He’s a killer. He was a competitor on the court, and that competitive attitude transcended pretty much everything else. That’s why I love him so much.”
Despite the unexpected ending to Bosh’s playing career, the 6-11 forward-turned-center still accomplished a lot. He put up career averages of 19.2 points on 49.4 percent shooting, 8.5 rebounds, two assists and one block in 893 regular-season games (881 starts), and he was an 11-time All-Star.
Bosh is one of 13 players in NBA history to average at least 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds in a career that included at least 11 All-Star selections.
“I’m well past the point of saying, ‘Well, what if?’” Bosh said when asked if he still thinks about what he could have accomplished if he continued playing past 2016. “I can’t have that excuse of saying, ‘Well, if I was still playing, I would have made it to the Hall of Fame.’ All of that is gone. Everything else was just icing on the cake. It was just all about numbers and accolades, which can be very fickle and misleading sometimes. So for me, I just have fun in seeing how I would have approached the game. Putting puzzles together that would never exist.”
HOW BOSH WANTS TO BE REMEMBERED
Bosh spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career with the Toronto Raptors before joining the Heat as a free agent in the summer of 2010 to form the Big 3 with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
In six seasons with the Heat (2010-2016), Bosh won two NBA championships, appeared in four NBA Finals and was voted into six All-Star Games. He averaged 18 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.9 blocks in 384 regular-season games with Miami, often sacrificing his individual stats to allow James and Wade to lead the Heat’s offense in their four seasons together.
Among the Heat’s all-time leaders, Bosh still ranks fifth in points (6,914) and free throws made (1,469), sixth in scoring average (18.0), defensive rebounds (2,258) and field goals made (2,595), seventh in total rebounds (2,816) and blocks (332), and 10th in minutes played (13,121).
“I just wanted to be a guy that if you depended on me, you knew that I would be there,” Bosh said. “You knew that I would pull through, you knew that I could play basketball. I’ve worn a lot of different hats over my career, and that’s what I’m most proud of. Leader of a franchise, role player, rebound guy, defender, scorer if you need me, I’ll take over a game. It’s just anything that was required to be successful and win basketball games, you need Chris. That’s how I want to be remembered. Numbers, I’m not going to have the big numbers. I’m not going to have as much of a splash as other players would. But when it comes to competition, when it comes to playing this game, pack your lunch.”
Bosh already had his jersey retired by the Heat during the 2018-19 season. Bosh, Wade, O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, and Tim Hardaway are the five Heat players who have had their jerseys retired by the organization.
Bosh and the Heat had a falling out in 2016 when he believed he was ready to resume his playing career after battling blood clots, but the Heat believed it wasn’t safe. The Heat eventually waived Bosh in July 2017 to clear his contract from its salary cap once his blood clot issues were ruled a career-ending illness by an NBA doctor.
But the Heat and Bosh later reconciled, as Bosh came to accept the fact that he played his final NBA game, stopped working toward an NBA comeback and ultimately announced his retirement in 2019. Now, Riley and former Heat teammate Ray Allen will serve as Bosh’s presenters for his enshrinement into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I felt for him. I really felt for him,” Riley said of that turbulent time in his relationship with Bosh in 2016. “... I just felt for a man who’s such a competitor to not be able to do what he wanted to do, what he loved to do. That was the hardest part for me, and I was in the middle of it being sort of the spokesperson for the team, but listening to the doctors and listening to Chris and going through it. It strained our relationship, which really hurt me a lot.”
Riley and Bosh credit a long lunch in Malibu, California, in 2017 for helping to repair their relationship.
“I’m so glad that we’re on these kind of terms right now and I’m proud,” Riley said. “I’m so proud that he asked me to walk him down the aisle to the Hall of Fame because it really is an honor to do that for this man.”
AT PEACE
While Bosh is now at peace with how his playing career ended, the reality is that there’s still plenty of unanswered “what if” questions.
What if Bosh was healthy and available to play during the Heat’s 2016 playoff run that ended just one win from facing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals? What if Bosh and guard Goran Dragic would have been able to play together for a sustained stretch? What if Bosh’s NBA career wasn’t over yet?
As a skilled and athletic big man with a reliable outside jumper, Bosh fits the mold of the modern NBA big. In fact, he helped create the blueprint for the modern-day big after going from 0.3 three-point attempts per game in his first season with the Heat in 2010-11 to 4.2 three-point attempts per game in his final NBA season in 2015-16.
“I was shooting like four or five threes a game in my last year in the league. So I had embraced that,” Bosh said. “I was very much so looking forward to perfecting that craft and that role and getting better at that. I just didn’t have the opportunity to do so. But, yeah, I saw myself playing for a while. Especially now, kind of like you see with the opportunity that [Carmelo Anthony] is going to have with the Lakers, just being that spot-up three-point shooter to spread the floor and play defense, stay solid and just be who you are to help the team and fill that gap.”
Riley added that he’s “sure that CB would still be playing and he would be with us. I’m confident that he would be with us. We like older guys, as you see.”
Instead of preparing for the start of training camp, though, Bosh is preparing his family for the trip to Springfield for his Hall of Fame induction. With five children ranging from age 5 to 12 years old, Bosh and his wife Adrienne have their hands full.
“Just coordinating everything — outfits, snacks, iPads, headphones,” Bosh said with a laugh. “We’re pretty much like an equipment manager for a team. ... It has been tough for everybody over the past few months, a year and some change. It will be great to celebrate something. Just to be able to hunker down with people that we love and greats of the game and celebrate.”
Already enshrined in the Hall of Fame for careers that included time with the Heat are Ray Allen, Mourning, O’Neal, Gary Payton, and Riley. Former Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo is also in the Hall, with Bosh formally joining that list this weekend.
A large Heat contingent will be in attendance for Bosh’s Hall of Fame enshrinement. Riley, Mourning, general manager Andy Elisburg and coach Erik Spoelstra, among others are expected to be in Springfield for the ceremony.
Bosh was still putting the finishing touches on his induction speech as of late last week. His goal is “to move people.”
“I want them to walk away feeling like they know a little bit more about me and my experience,” Bosh said. “But at the same time, they’re curious. I want it to be like, OK, you got to listen to the speech again. ‘What did he mean by this?’ and ‘What is that?’ as far as like historical references to the game. I have a great team around me and that’s a part of my daily process. Just continuing to go over it and over and over with a fine-tooth comb and make it as good as it can be.”
When Bosh’s Hall of Fame moment is over, he will return to his home in Austin. He’s in a good place physically and mentally. Bosh recently wrote a book, “Letters to a Young Athlete,” that Riley wrote the foreword to, and his family and music help to keep him busy.
“I’m happy and healthy, man. I’m as healthy as I’ve ever been actually,” he said. “I can say that with confidence. My joints, my knee pain, I can walk up the stairs. I’ve been able to walk up the stairs for years with no pain and that’s a blessing. It’s all good, man.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 4:07 PM.
