Chris Bosh posted an interesting message to his fans on his Twitter account Friday night. The Toronto Raptors star, who has nearly 100,000 followers on the popular social networking site, tweeted for advice about his future.
"Been wanting to ask. Where should I go next season and why?"
He followed up the tweet a couple of minutes later with another one:
Ok… Let me rephrase the question. Should I stay or should I go?
Bosh has been the subject of much speculation the past season since he is expcted to opt out of the last year of his contract and entering free agency this summer. He also became noticeably agitated as the Raptors entered a slump late in the season and blew their playoff chances.
He has been mature, responsible, earnest, and dedicated to the task. No, he couldn’t convince a parade of ill-fitting teammates to play this thing they call defence, or to rebound as if it mattered, or to create contact the way he does. No, he has not been able to lift his perpetually flawed and limited teammates past the first round of the playoffs. No, he’s not LeBron, or Dwyane Wade, or Kobe. Few are.
But by and large, Chris Bosh has, unlike certain others of this franchise’s franchise players, been someone the city could be reasonably proud of.
This, however, was not his finest moment. Maybe he thought it would be playful; maybe he was just bored on a Friday night, waiting for the Lakers-Thunder game to start. Maybe he genuinely doesn’t know what to do – which seems likely – and decided to do a little dance with the masses.
But that’s what this was – a cry for attention, for affection, for an adrenaline shot to the ego. Worse, it was a disingenuous cry; it was the kind of fan-baiting that Bosh was above this season, as he conducted himself with dignity and respect. Unlike, say, LeBron James, who took a peculiar sort of delight in publicly flirting with the idea of playing in New York, among other places. LeBron appears likely to stay in Cleveland, in which case all of that will be forgotten, and forgiven.
So here’s the question Heat president Pat Riley might soon have to ponder. Clearly, Bosh is the Heat’s top free agent target (I still consider LeBron James as a free agent pipe dream, although dreams do come true). But would Miami be willing to take on Turkoglu if it meant acquiring Bosh?
Of course Riley would. The question is does Miami have enough pieces to outbid other suitors the Raptors would line up for such a deal. Houston was mentioned in ESPN’s report, with some sort of deal built around big man Jordan Hill that would expand to include the likes of Shane Battier, Luis Scola or another wing.
Miami would have to get a third team involved that is either under the cap or would be willing to take on Jermaine O’Neal as part of the sign-and-trade deal. And O’Neal, a veteran who can still produce when healthy, would fit well in Houston, which would need a backup or insurance for Yao Ming moving forward.
So the Heat would essentially send out O’Neal (to Houston) and Michael Beasley, Daequan Cook and James Jones to Toronto. And the Heat could sweeten the deal by giving Toronto back that conditional first-round pick Miami acquired in the O’Neal trade last year. And the Heat also has a spare Canadian to throw in, too (Joel Anthony or Jamaal Magloire).
Toronto would get back expiring contracts, significant cap space and a chance to start over. That’s far more than it would get if Bosh simply bolted to Miami on his own, which he clearly could do if he didn’t like any of the Raptors other potential trade partners.
Although names haven’t been named, the VERY strong hints that we’ve heard is that at least one of the guys who didn’t want to make the playoffs was our twitter author. So….. why go this route right now? Is this a guy who is trying to engage his fans? Given that he wrote it about 3 and 4 hours ago and hasn’t written anything since, it doesn’t seem like he was overly chatty. Did Bosh write it on twitter to egg on Bryan Colangelo? I mean does Bosh want to push Colangelo to see where or if hey may snap? Did he do this as a sign of disrespect to Colangelo? Was this done to start the slow road to out? I mean is this Bosh’s way of letting people down?
Or, is this just another sign of a huge ego that needs stroking. Is this a guy who is on the periphery at the time when the NBA season means the most. Is Bosh crying in his milk that he is totally irrelevant right now and he doesn’t like not being part of the spotlight? Is Bosh so insecure that he needs fans and maybe even team officials to drool over him to beg him to stay? Is that what this is all about?
