Things will be different this season for the Miami Heat, for the first time in 14 years, they’ll be without Dwyane Wade who signed with the Chicago Bulls this summer. And they will also be without forward Chris Bosh. The final member of the “Big 3” has been eager to get back on the court but Heat President Pat Riley has announced Bosh’s career with the Heat is done.
Bosh has been unable to complete each of the past two seasons due to blood clots. Although he was working hard to return, a failed preseason physical has bascially closed the door on his career in Miami. During media day, Pat Rileystated they are no longer working towards his return.
“We are not,” Riley said. “I think Chris is still open-minded. But we are not working toward his return. We feel that, based on the last exam, that his Heat career is probably over.”
Asked if he felt Bosh’s NBA career was over, as well, Riley said, “that’s up to him.”
“It’s pretty definitive from us, in our standpoint, that this is probably going to be a time where we really have to step back,” Riley said. “His health, playing, and economics — it’s been health, health, health,” Riley said. “Whatever the cap ramifications are, they are there, but we never ever thought about that.”
Bosh signed a five-year, $118 million max contract with the Heat in 2014, with more than $70 million and three years left. If Bosh is ruled medically unable to play by an NBA specialist, the Heat can apply for cap relief after February 9, 2017. Riley denied there was anything else at play about the Heat’s position on CB.
“If there was a level of mistrust, I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Riley said. “Contrary to how this thing has been perpetuated in the media, we have worked very, very hard with Chris. I don’t know where that came from. We were there the whole time when he was in the hospital in 2015. We headed down the road very excited to a point where we thought it would work,” Riley said. “And then the physical couldn’t clear him to the next step.”
Riley said the team has been surprised by Bosh’s comments about the team.
“It wasn’t like [gesture of washing his hands of it]. He wasn’t just written off,” Riley said. “That may have been his attitude and his perception of it because he didn’t want to believe what was out there. That bothered me. He wasn’t written off. Besides that, we did everything we could.”
spotted at Sun Sentinel
photo via Instagram
