Didn’t know what else to call this post ... so ... ‘CB4 and the near future’ it is. Regarding the (previous) ‘Antonio Davis on Vince’ post ... I wrote this at the same time, deciding as I did that it was two different posts.
There’s obviously no parallel from ‘Vince’s graduation decision’ at all to today’s team ... and I’m sure there never will be here or anywhere else, but I can’t help but wonder about that stretch of games before the All Star break when it started to look like ... just maybe ... we might have the beginnings of something serious going on ... if (and it’s a big ‘if’, I know, but ... ) ... if they continued to grow and get better - as opposed to the apparent turn they’ve taken since then, going the other way, up until around now at least - and after playing through a competitive playoff series or two (??), if Turkoglu was inspired to hit the gym hard this summer, along with Bargnani and DeRozan (who, I’m convinced is going to be a star - maybe a very big star) ... and of course, if Chris signed on to stay, which would’ve been (would be) a HUGE signal to the rest of the team (and league) that ‘we’re getting serious about building a contender here’ ... well, there’s just no telling what could be ... or could’ve been.
A lot of ‘ifs’ above, I know ... but, that spark or momentum, if that’s what it was - before the break - was real, I at least, believed. And ... while it’s never over ‘til it’s over ... if LeBron DID get into Bosh’s head during the break in Dallas (my own pet theory - though I wasn’t the first to say it; one or two other posters mentioned a similar scenario after the Golden State game), the surprise to me there is that Bosh would be that ... persuade-able. Although, a bit less surprised as I think about it and really ponder. On one hand, it’s easy to imagine LeBron’s pitch (again, IF any of this took place) ... painting the picture of the two of them racking up championships in the Big Apple (where else?), going into the Hall of Fame as one of the great duos in NBA history ... it would be seductive, to say the least. But, on the other hand ... Chris Bosh has always been his own man and pointedly so, even. So, from that perspective, the whole thing about Bosh giving off unconscious signals that he’s out of here (if he actually is and he knows it, I say only to be fair) surprises the hell out of me.
I also acknowledge that it’s not impossible that what we’re seeing is that Bosh is so deeply conflicted at this moment (whether he’s consciously ‘decided’ or not ... at the VERY least, he’s deeply conflicted at the moment - a blind man could see it) - because even though we’ve not won anything with him here, he’s had to have enjoyed all the years spent in Toronto, growing into the ‘big dog’ that he is ... and he’s also likely aware - as many of us are, I’m sure - that if he signed on to stay, he’d absolutely own this town for years to come ... and it would be among the biggest boosts of all time to the team, really knowing just what their focus was: to get good enough to get to the big dance, that is (of course), the finals ... and having that kind of focus makes alll the difference in the world.
As I write this, I wonder to myself if I’m not ‘pitching’ Chris from the side door over here, thinking that (who knows?) maybe he reads these kinds of things (he doesn’t watch TV and he is a voracious reader ... and he knows his way around the internet - wouldn’t you be interested in what people were saying about you?) or more likely, that someone else reads it and picks up the ball, so to speak, expanding on the sentiment ... and yes, I am a hopeless T Honker, ridiculously so I admit ... but I really ... really ... really ... don’t want him to leave. Not that what I want is going to make any kind of a difference. (My ass may be dumb, but I ain’t no dumb-ass - as Ordell Robbie once said).
But unless he already signed his name in blood combined with LeBron’s on a piece of hotel stationary in Dallas ... and while he wouldn’t have done that, his handshake and his ‘word’ to LeBron would be very close to ‘as good as’, most of us know ... I’ll still hold out some tiny bit of hope that the switch flips the other way between now and the end of the season ... and he seriously weighs up just what it is that he’d be giving up on, here.
It’s not the Big Apple ... but having lived there for spells - I know New York City and love the goddam place - this town is getting better all the time ... and as far as I’m concerned, Toronto doesn’t take a back seat to anywhere that I’ve been. I don’t have to live here, I choose to live here. And I really hope CB4 ends up doing the same.
Honk.
There’s obviously no parallel from ‘Vince’s graduation decision’ at all to today’s team ... and I’m sure there never will be here or anywhere else, but I can’t help but wonder about that stretch of games before the All Star break when it started to look like ... just maybe ... we might have the beginnings of something serious going on ... if (and it’s a big ‘if’, I know, but ... ) ... if they continued to grow and get better - as opposed to the apparent turn they’ve taken since then, going the other way, up until around now at least - and after playing through a competitive playoff series or two (??), if Turkoglu was inspired to hit the gym hard this summer, along with Bargnani and DeRozan (who, I’m convinced is going to be a star - maybe a very big star) ... and of course, if Chris signed on to stay, which would’ve been (would be) a HUGE signal to the rest of the team (and league) that ‘we’re getting serious about building a contender here’ ... well, there’s just no telling what could be ... or could’ve been.
A lot of ‘ifs’ above, I know ... but, that spark or momentum, if that’s what it was - before the break - was real, I at least, believed. And ... while it’s never over ‘til it’s over ... if LeBron DID get into Bosh’s head during the break in Dallas (my own pet theory - though I wasn’t the first to say it; one or two other posters mentioned a similar scenario after the Golden State game), the surprise to me there is that Bosh would be that ... persuade-able. Although, a bit less surprised as I think about it and really ponder. On one hand, it’s easy to imagine LeBron’s pitch (again, IF any of this took place) ... painting the picture of the two of them racking up championships in the Big Apple (where else?), going into the Hall of Fame as one of the great duos in NBA history ... it would be seductive, to say the least. But, on the other hand ... Chris Bosh has always been his own man and pointedly so, even. So, from that perspective, the whole thing about Bosh giving off unconscious signals that he’s out of here (if he actually is and he knows it, I say only to be fair) surprises the hell out of me.
I also acknowledge that it’s not impossible that what we’re seeing is that Bosh is so deeply conflicted at this moment (whether he’s consciously ‘decided’ or not ... at the VERY least, he’s deeply conflicted at the moment - a blind man could see it) - because even though we’ve not won anything with him here, he’s had to have enjoyed all the years spent in Toronto, growing into the ‘big dog’ that he is ... and he’s also likely aware - as many of us are, I’m sure - that if he signed on to stay, he’d absolutely own this town for years to come ... and it would be among the biggest boosts of all time to the team, really knowing just what their focus was: to get good enough to get to the big dance, that is (of course), the finals ... and having that kind of focus makes alll the difference in the world.
As I write this, I wonder to myself if I’m not ‘pitching’ Chris from the side door over here, thinking that (who knows?) maybe he reads these kinds of things (he doesn’t watch TV and he is a voracious reader ... and he knows his way around the internet - wouldn’t you be interested in what people were saying about you?) or more likely, that someone else reads it and picks up the ball, so to speak, expanding on the sentiment ... and yes, I am a hopeless T Honker, ridiculously so I admit ... but I really ... really ... really ... don’t want him to leave. Not that what I want is going to make any kind of a difference. (My ass may be dumb, but I ain’t no dumb-ass - as Ordell Robbie once said).
But unless he already signed his name in blood combined with LeBron’s on a piece of hotel stationary in Dallas ... and while he wouldn’t have done that, his handshake and his ‘word’ to LeBron would be very close to ‘as good as’, most of us know ... I’ll still hold out some tiny bit of hope that the switch flips the other way between now and the end of the season ... and he seriously weighs up just what it is that he’d be giving up on, here.
It’s not the Big Apple ... but having lived there for spells - I know New York City and love the goddam place - this town is getting better all the time ... and as far as I’m concerned, Toronto doesn’t take a back seat to anywhere that I’ve been. I don’t have to live here, I choose to live here. And I really hope CB4 ends up doing the same.
Honk.
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