MEMORIES
His tenure in Toronto is bridge from team’s worst era to best
TORONTO — Chris Bosh is reclined on a seat on the Toronto Raptors bench, reminiscing with an old chronicler, and he’s asked if he remembers the first three-pointer he ever made.
He smiles a big, old smile, doesn’t say a word for a handful of beats and simply points to the other end and far side of the court.
“Houston. Sunday afternoon. Beat the buzzer. Kevin O’Neill was coaching,” he recalls
“It was funny, KO ran a play for Vince (Carter). Ran trip screens, the things you see Klay (Thompson) and Steph (Curry) killing people off now. I was on the block, I had never shot a three. He said, You’re gonna pop back, you’re gonna (expletive) knock it down.’
“I said OK. I shot it, it went and, yeah, great. That was the first time when I noticed how the attention shifted and changed. Everybody knew my name after that.”
And that Sunday afternoon in November 2003 — Bosh’s threepointer forced overtime, Toronto won in double-overtime and he had 10 of his 25 points in the extra 10 minutes — kind of summed up what was to come for the then raw rookie from Georgia Tech.
He was the best player on what was often a suspect team, a fivetime all-star in seven tumultuous seasons in Toronto, grinding it out in search of great success that would never come.
“It’s like, ‘Man, I’m gonna get 50 points tonight and we’re going to the playoffs this year,’ ” he said Chris Bosh reacts to a foul during the Raptors’ 121-115 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers during action in Toronto on Nov. 16, 2005.
with a chuckle. “No. ‘You’re gonna get 18, you’re gonna lose by 18. And you’re not gonna make the playoffs.’ I started to appreciate how hard the league is and how hard you have to work to be who you want to be. That’s just something that will always stay with me. I worked my butt off and that’s all. I wanted to be the best and it was my journey here.”
Bosh’s legacy in Toronto is complicated, and not solely by things of his own doing.
His seven seasons — five of which included him being named to all-star teams — were among the most turbulent times in franchise history, a period full of significant change.
Bosh played for three head coaches in those seasons, his rookie year under O’Neill, as tumultuous a season as there’s even been, and through the entire Sam Mitchell era before
finishing his time with the Raptors under Jay Triano.
But more important was the senior management through his tenure.
Bosh was drafted by Glen Grunwald, survived the interim period of Jack McCloskey, watched Rob Babcock struggle with the job duties until he gave away the team’s prime asset in Carter, and then looked on as Wayne Embry tried to right the listing ship. Bosh eventually ended his time in Toronto when Bryan Colangelo was in charge.
That’s five general managers, three head coaches and even more inherent roster change in seven years.
The turnover was so startling that when Bosh was talking about it Wednesday, the McCloskey era had completely gone out of his mind. When he was reminded that McCloskey was in charge of the draft that netted the Raptors Rafael Araujo instead of any other breathing draft-eligible male, he guffaws.
“That was Jack?”
Still, Bosh’s name remains all over the team’s record book.
He’s the leading rebounder in franchise history (4,776), first in blocked shots (600) and second in points with 10,275. He and DeMar DeRozan are the only players in Raptors history to score more than 10,000 points while playing for Toronto.
Bosh is also fifth in games played (509), second in made field goals (3,614) and third in field-goal attempts (7,346).
But, despite those lofty numbers, he appeared in only two playoff series during his Toronto tenure, a six-game first-round loss to the New Jersey Nets in 2007 and a five-game, first-round bouncing administered by the Orlando Magic in ’08.
“It was time,” he said of his departure to the Miami Heat, a move that allowed him to win two NBA titles and likely earn a call from the basketball Hall of Fame. “I had goals, I wanted to win a championship and it just wasn’t here at that point in time unfortunately.”
Now 34, Bosh is proud of what he did in Toronto, even if he had to leave to do more.
He will be remembered as one of the very best players to play here, a bridge from the worst era to the best.
“Just to be able to go out there and represent somewhere that needed somebody to put them on their backs. Just trying my best to be that player for the organization,” he said.
“That’s probably the part I remember most. I don’t know, man, we just tried so hard and it was a lot of fun.
“A lot of heartbreak, too.”