Most of us remember the Miami Heat as a show run by LBJ and Wade– a pair of athletic players who could throw half court lobs to each other. Yet, people do forget the third member of the “Big 3” – Chris Bosh. Bosh was the third fiddle to the James and Wade show. Despite being a part of a superteam, most tend to forget his individual greatness. What do we remember most about Bosh? What is his legacy?
Bosh was drafted in the legendary 2003 draft, which included his future teammates LeBron and Wade. Carmelo was also in the mix. The 2000’s also had a handful of great big men playing in that era. Duncan, Dirk, Garnett are the prominent names when we talk about the PF spot during that decade. Chris Bosh was expected to carry the Raptors into the promised land. Despite being a consistent 20 and 10 player, he failed to establish his own brand pf basketball while being the lead star of a struggling Toronto franchise. Duncan was always known to be a winner–winning 3 rings in that decade; Dirk was an innovator as he led the transformation of the traditional big man to the “stretch 4” big and his patented fadeaway made him one of the deadliest offensive 4 player ever. Kevin Garnett was like a rockstar on the court- tenacious and wild at times and plays as if it were his last day on earth. It didn’t help also that all of them won the championship atleast once. Another point is that he played in Toronto, a struggling franchise in dire need of an identity. Toronto was still kind of irrelevant during Bosh’s tenure. There was still “discrimination” because they are the only franchise based outside the States. It was not yet the market that they have today with Drake and with the fanbase. Few year later in Miami, Bosh is now the big man reinforcing the D of the Heatles. People disregard this alot but it was Bosh who sacrificed much of his playstyle in order to suit LBJ’s spacing needs. With this, he developed his own outside game all the while maintaining his solid interior d and post proficiency. He showed his grit during the game 6 of the Finals grabbing the most important rebound for the historic Allen 3 and blocked Danny Green’s three which forced a game 7 and eventually their second title. However with all the highlights, he also suffered his fair share of lows; significantly, his stats dropped down. He became the third option instead of being the first option way back in Toronto. The attention was also affected as his spotlight dwindled under the brighter lights of Wade and James. He also suffered a nasty bloodclot which inevitably cost his career. LeBron also left the Heat in shambles in 2015 which did not help the case. 
With all those oit of the way, I would still consider Bosh as one of the best PF’s of the decade. His talent was one of a kind like that of Duncan and Dirk. Although not as talented or as succesful as them, he proved to be a very important piece in that Miami back-to-back. People might tend to make him the receiving end of memes but his greatness is really overlooked. It was just a case of sacrificing for the bigger picture. He knew he could not lead a team on his own so that us why he joined the Heat. This makes him well-respected among his peers and a sure-fire Hall of Famer; the accolades back it up also.

by Miguel Jumonong