Full disclosure: I’m a Miami Heat fan.
I've been one since 2003, when they drafted Dwyane Wade with the fifth pick. Have been since 2006, when Wade and Shaq and James Posey and Eddie Jones led Miami to its first NBA title.
I’ll even unabashedly admit that a life-sized Wade poster hangs in my childhood bedroom right now, and even after he left the Heat for Chicago this summer, I was too stubborn to take it down.
So my words here may be tainted.
The Chris Bosh situation is ugly, and I don’t blame the Miami Heat.
Let me explain.
Bosh, an 11-time All-Star and Heat power forward since 2010, was diagnosed with blood clots and a pulmonary embolism midway through the Heat’s season in 2015. He was sidelined for the rest of the year — any forceful physical contact on Bosh without an ambulance nearby could have been fatal.
The blood clots reoccurred last season, and again Bosh was held out.
After the season ended, the Heat organization sought advice from its team doctors: Was there any way Bosh could play basketball again without the risk of bleeding out and dying on the court?
They said no.
Then Bosh said no. He wanted to play, and he found a private doctor who convinced him that — with the right medication — he’ll be able to get back onto the court.
Two years of rising tension between him and Heat officials culminated the other week during the Heat’s media day, when Heat president Pat Riley declared that Bosh would not play another game with Miami, despite the fact that Bosh was petitioning for his return all summer on social media, desperately trying to convince anyone who would listen that he was healthy.
He still thinks he is.
I don’t like doing this. I don’t like telling other people what they should or should not do.
But Bosh should retire.
If everything that has been reported is true, and Bosh does have a reoccurring blood-clot issue, and if one bruise after an elbow to his head can cause one of the NBA’s best power forwards to collapse and die on the court, there can be no question as to what Bosh’s decision needs to be.
Retire Bosh. End your career as a two-time NBA champion and one of the best power forwards to ever play the game.
Because the other ending could be disastrous.
Ian Cohen is the sports editor. Contact him at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
Miami Heat's Chris Bosh (1) is defended by Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant on Jan. 17, 2016.
