Here’s a novel thought for Heat president Pat Riley regarding this delicate, confusing, legally ambiguous, medically complicated and seemingly passive-aggressive dance with Chris Bosh:
Talk!
Speak!
Go ye forth unto a microphone, in public, and give some official proclamation of what’s happening here. Or what will happen here. Or what you want to happen subject to the legally binding arbitration decision of a mutually agreed-on doctor.
Or maybe even talk about how you still don’t know what might happen since doctors and lawyers are involved in a five-on-five game of their own.
Ditto for Bosh. He hasn’t talked to us since suffering a second blood clot in February. What is he being told by doctors and, also important, what is he being told by the Heat?
The longer this goes on, the more Bosh prods with another social-media statement, the more the Heat send oddly tangential or contradictory smoke signals in return (owner Micky Arison looks forward to seeing him, coach Erik Spoelstra doesn’t mention him ), the more fans try to parse it all and have the same question:
Huh? The more it drags on, the more it looks like the Heat don’t expect Bosh back. That takes us down another complicated rabbit hole.
Would they not want him back, as they didn’t last playoffs, for his own life’s good? Because their doctors have deemed the health risk too high for a young man with young children whose remaining $77mn is guaranteed whether he dribbles again or not?
Is that what’s at work here?
That makes all kinds of sense. That’s what I think is involved. And the question there is why Bosh doesn’t agree with this, too. But you could also chart a more Machiavellian course for the Heat. This idea says the reward of having Bosh on the court isn’t worth the risk of him consuming a quarter of the salary cap, potentially suffering another blood clot and derailing a third straight season when they can get out from under that contract now.
Here’s what isn’t in doubt: The Heat are a better team with a healthy Bosh. And one of the admirable tenets of Riley’s stewardship is the Heat never throw away seasons. They always try to win and, mostly, have won.
With Bosh, they have playoff talent. Without him, they’re looking to next season, which plays into the Machiavellian narrative except for one important fact: Bosh looks about as good as anyone in free agency next summer.
This assumes Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant aren’t leaving Golden State. Does Blake Griffin set your franchise’s foundation? Gordon Hayward knock your socks off?
The Heat have had months to gather medical, legal, ethical, moral, historical and basketball information. They’ve had months to consider the pros and cons, the doctors’ arguments and legal counter-arguments, and the fallout of what to do.
It’s a sticky, messy situation with public-relations overtones, and there might not be a good answer. Just this week, Bosh re-directed conversation by putting video out on social media (“I’m a hooper,” he said) and a photo of him working out with Dwyane Wade (talk about a shot across the Heat’s bow).
Bosh is a lover of books, so here’s the literary reference to that: The spider in Charlotte’s Web writing daily words above the pig, Wilbur, like “Radiant” and “Humble” to steer conversation. That’s what Bosh is doing on social media.
Arison responded on Twitter in a way that would be innocent and friendly if not for the fact no one in the Heat has said anything conclusive at all about Bosh. He wrote: “Looking good CB ... look forward to seeing in camp.”
Was the Heat owner saying Bosh was playing again _ and, if so, why no official statement underlining that idea? Or (my thought) was he just offering a passing social-media wave of friendship?
No one knows for certain. We’re three weeks from the start of Heat camp and the Bosh question remains the over-riding question for this season. Riley said last spring he’d be talking in late August or early September about it.
It’s early September.
Talk.