Friday, March 8, 2013

The BC Autopsy: Chris Bosh Interlude

To say that the summer of 2010, in NBA circles, was dominated by LeBron James is like saying the early 40s were dominated by World War 2. “Domination” is not a strong enough word. It was -- annihilated. In most senses, there was no NBA outside of James and his infamously, heinously mishandled exit from Ohio to Florida. In retrospect, the shock and fury was overblown; the angry mobs misguided; the “Heat Index” destined to cool. But if we've jumped into the Autopsy Time Machine™ back to July 2010, then we've landed in the middle of a chaos that was sure to realign the power structure of the NBA. We were never going to be the same.

Of course, there was another player of (some significance) who flapped his snowbird wings and flew south (and I don’t mean Mike Miller). Chris Bosh, after years of existential speculation, extradited himself from the orbit of this Raptor team. The most productive player in its history (shots fired, Vince) was gone.

Can you believe that I never really thought he would? Not for some naive sense of loyalty but because I assumed the money issues, and the lingering concern that Bosh was only as good as a big fish in a small pond, would scare him into taking Toronto’s lottery ticket. Hell, he could always whine until he was unceremoniously traded to the Nets for a package of scrubs.

I was wrong. And I got sad (but only briefly). Not for the expulsion of talent as the Raptors have managed to admirably soldier on with a committee of power forwards since. But, because whether his intentions were true and good or reasonable and fiduciary, I had some notion that (okay, this was naive) to be a real franchise, one with reverence and tradition and history and perennialism, we (I know, I know) needed a careerist. Our Reggie Miller or Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant or Larry Bird or Magic or Jordan (more or less). Someone with the possibility to go to the Hall of Fame in an awful purple jersey.

But I got over it, and quickly, because I realized that a fairly good player making a lot of money then leaving for more money was actually a low impact concern, considering the history of this team and this GM. I’d take a hundred Bosh exits if it avoided one Jermaine O’Neal or Bargnani extension or l’affaire Turkoglu. Here was an opportunity to cut costs, invest in the draft and starve themselves of the idiot’s fallback plan: to spend contender money on a 35 win team.

Chris Bosh’s exit was not a cause of the Raptors past or current woes. It wasn't even a symptom. That I only spent a week dwelling on this supposed affront and betrayal before ultimately shrugging it off? That was the symptom.

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