Why is everyone so bitter these days? Well, I guess if one of my star players left my squad via free agency, I might be a little upset too. But I’d get over it though. First LeBron James gets called out by his former owner, Dan Gilbert, who accused James of quitting on the Cavaliers during the 2010 playoffs against the Celtics, amongst a bunch of other things. Now, Raptors GM, Bryan Colangelo has fired shots at Chris Bosh as well.
In this latest edition of Hate the Heat Colangelo, while on radio for 590 The Fan in Toronto, said that Bosh “checked out” on the team before the season was over. Almost like he was a different player than he was at the beginning of the year. Colangelo would go on the say that Chris “mentally checked out or, you know, just wasn’t quite into it down the stretch, he wasn’t the same guy. And I think everybody saw that, just no one wanted to acknowledge it.” The last part of that quote sounds very Dan Gilbert-esque. I wonder if Colangelo called Gilbert for advice on how to look foolish publicly. Maybe he even had Gilbert type it for him in the very professional-looking Comic Sans font too. During another portion of the radio interview, Colangelo said that Wade, Bosh and James had been planning on playing together for three years now and that “this has been brewing for a while.”
Above all, what really had Colangelo going is that he felt Bosh was healthy enough to play down the stretch where they really needed him, because they ended up missing the playoffs by one game to the Bulls. “Despite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games. I’m not even questioning Chris’ injury. I’m telling you he was cleared to play subject to tolerance on his part, and the tolerance just apparently wasn’t there and he chose not to play.”
My question is: why now? Chris left weeks ago. Why is he choosing to to share this now? The timing of it makes Colangelo look silly. If he said this a day or two after Chris left, then maybe I would actually want to hear what he has to say. Whether or not what he’s saying actually has any merit, he just looks bad because it looks like he’s crying over spilled milk, which he is. Listen, everyone needs to get over it. Plain and simple. Players leave via their own free will, or get hit by a blind-sided trade. It happens. Colangelo would’ve been better served to not say anything. Especially so long after the fact.
I swear, if Pat Riley has something to say about Dwyane Wade next week, I’m never watching basketball again.
If you’re looking for your everyday, predictable basketball talk, then go somewhere else, because Kevin Burke of The Kevin Burke Project brings provocative, thought provoking content about basketball as only he can. Kevin also hosts The Hoop Doctors weekly podcast show, which you can subscribe too for free on iTunes.
