Chris Bosh Announces He Will No Longer Pursue An NBA Comeback

(Yahoo Sports) – Chris Bosh said he will no longer pursue an NBA career after having not played in the league since the 2015-16 season. He’ll retire at the same time his jersey is retired next month by the Miami Heat.

He spoke with Bill Simmons of The Ringer about it for the podcast 

“That part of my life is over. That has been a tough thing to deal with but I’m good, which has taken a long time [for me to accept] … I could have kept playing. But man, that time has passed. I’ve made the decision not to pursue it anymore.”

The 11-time all-star and two-time NBA champion last played with the Miami Heat at 31 years old, but blood clots kept him out. He later failed a physical.
The Heat will retire his jersey March 26 and Bosh noted he might tear up “knowing that that part of my life is over.”

“That has been a tough thing to deal with, but I’m good,” he said.

Bosh said as recently as a year ago he was trying “pretty adamantly” to return and would have taken a lesser role with a pay cut.

“Just give me like 12 (million), 15, sit down and let the young guys do it,” he said. “I can mosey on back on defense. I don’t really have to try that hard on defense.”

Some of you may not have even been aware that Chris Bosh hadn’t officially hung it up after not playing for the last 2+ seasons, but this is a bummer. It really is a sad story that a HOF caliber player had to walk away from the game in the middle of his prime due to his blood clot issue, but I think everyone agrees that risking your life just to play basketball is sort of silly. Even though Bosh was part of the MIA Big 3 a team I despised with every fiber of my being, as a general basketball fan he was one of the most lethal players of this generation of NBA basketball. Basketball Reference has him at a 99.5% chance to make the Hall, he was an 11 time All Star making the game every year since his 3rd season, had career averages of 19.2/8.5 and they were only that low because he was willing to sacrifice in order to win a ring. He was a legit beast during his time in TOR, you could basically pencil him in for 22/10 every single night and what sucks is he really is the perfect PF for today’s NBA.

You can’t tell me a guy that got to a point where he was making over 1.4 3PM a night shooting around 37% from deep at ages 30-31 couldn’t thrive in today’s game? Bosh completely evolved the way he played and showed that he could carry the Heat team in a post LeBron world during those two final seasons. He got back to being that 20+ point per game scorer, was efficient, and pretty much resembled the same player he was in TOR, only now he could shoot threes. It sucks that we’ll never be able to see what he might have looked like not just on that Heat team, but any other contender. Imagine if Bosh found his way to GS/BOS/PHI/HOU/OKC etc and he was 100% healthy? He becomes a legit game changer for that franchise.

So while it’s a bummer he’s officially calling it quits, this does give us a chance to relive some of his greatest moments throughout his 13 year NBA career. Bosh at least for me personally will go down as one of the best players of the 2000s, and I just wish we got to see him play a little longer