The Houston Rockets came on strong during free agency – pitching a chance to compete for NBA championships alongside Dwight Howard and James Harden – but in the end, the Miami Heat’s max money offer and a great life in South Beach were too much for Chris Bosh to pass up.
Bosh re-upped with the Heat for five more seasons and $118 million, and with LeBron James no longer in the picture, the guy who was considered Miami’s no.3 option for the last four seasons is ready to become the proverbial Man in South Florida.
Chris Bosh sounds confident that the Heat can not only survive post-LeBron, but that they’ll continue to battle for title contention.
Per the AP and ESPN:
“I can’t lie to you: I’m excited. I’m excited for the challenge,” Bosh said during a break from NBA Africa duties. “I want to step up to the challenge. I feel this is a chance to prove to myself and others that I can still do this.
“I want to see if I can do what’s necessary to go in there and win every night. That’s the challenge of being a leader. It excites me. It’s been a long time and I feel like I’m a much better player and a leader now, so it’ll be fun.”
“I think right now we have the correct infrastructure to compete for a championship,” Bosh said. “We have to get much better at certain positions, and there’s a bunch of things that have to continue to happen. But you know a team like the Spurs, they had a lot of guys that people underestimate, but as a team, they were outstanding.”
After digesting the devastating news that LeBron James had gone back to Cleveland, the Miami Heat’s front-office began to build around Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade with the likes of Luol Deng, in addition to Danny Granger and Josh McRoberts.
Wade and Bosh both say they hold no grudge towards James after he left. But despite their confidence, they both have to know that attempting to reach the NBA Finals for a fifth straight year without the world’s greatest player will be a monumental challenge.
