NEW YORK—Chris Bosh is here for the NBA’s All-Star Game and Kevin Love is not.
It’s not quite last-laugh territory, but no one knows better than Bosh what it takes to win an NBA championship, and what it takes to win one alongside LeBron James.
For him it meant taking a big step back.
With James gone, Bosh has returned to levels of production reminiscent of his years with the Toronto Raptors, whom he left in the summer of 2011 as the franchise’s all-time leader in points, rebounds and blocked shots.
He can still get it done.
“I come every season always looking for something to prove, and this season that was kind of my thing,” he told me when we chatted recently in advance of him appearing in his 10th consecutive all-star showcase.
Bosh is averaging 21.5 points and 7.2 rebounds and has emerged as more of a three-point threat than a pure post scorer later in his career. He’s the only player in the NBA averaging at least 20 points and seven rebounds while making more than one triple per game.
“I don’t know why people have to create the stigma that after so many years I can’t do this. I can play basketball; it’s all right,” he said. “Of course I was satisfied with how things were going, but things changed and that’s OK. If they need me to up my productivity, I’ll do that. It’s a challenge night in and night out—some nights I’m going to fail, some night’s I’m going to succeed—but I’ll put the effort in every night.”
Bosh predicted that Love would struggle early on after the former Minnesota Timberwolves star went from primary cog to complementary piece in King James’s court alongside Kyrie Irving in Cleveland.
And so far Bosh has been correct.
“It’s not easy,” he said of moving to a supporting role. “Kyrie and LeBron are going to be themselves and they get to do that. He has to change the most. That’s just how it goes. It comes down to, pretty much, how bad you want to win. [Love] has taken it in stride—he’s done a fantastic job of just keeping his head and making sure he’s playing night in and night out. But it’s not easy. “
The star-studded Cavaliers arrived at the All-Star break seeming to have hit their stride as winners of 14 or their past 16 games, but Love’s role is still being defined. After averaging 23.5 points and 13.7 rebounds over the last four seasons in Minnesota, Love is down to just 17 and 10 for the Cavs, and headed for a career-low shooting percentage. The three-time All-Star didn’t make it to the game this year. James went so far as to take to Twitter with a cryptic tweet he later acknowledged was aimed at Love:
Being perceived as LeBron’s weak link was the world Bosh came to know after he made his own version of The Decision and elected to leave behind both Toronto and his role as the undisputed first option on teams that had modest success.
He rolled into Miami as a 25-year-old five-time all-star coming off the most productive season of his career. He posted career-highs of 24.7 points and 10.7 rebounds while shooting 51.8 percent from the floor heading into his first crack at free agency in 2010–11.
His four years in Miami tell the tale of an elite player who had to find a way to fit in along side two ball-dominant superstars in James and Dwyane Wade. Bosh’s efficiency increased, but his opportunities fell off significantly. The compensation was, of course, four straight trips to the NBA Finals and two big, shiny rings, which should nicely bolster his Hall of Fame candidacy when the time comes.
But for now Bosh is back where he started in many ways. He arrives in Manhattan as the lynchpin on a team that is striving to make it to the playoffs. Injuries and the challenge of integrating some new faces in the post-LeBron era have the Heat looking like the East’s biggest under-achievers. They enter the all-star break with a 22-30 record and sitting in eighth in the conference, but Bosh has carried his weight.
“We haven’t quite figured things out, between the injuries and working together as a team, we’re still searching,” he says. “It’s been difficult. It’s all about consistency. We have guys who can have a good game—we need to have guys who are having a good month.”
Should they edge ahead of the seventh-place Charlotte Hornets it’s possible they would meet the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, which would complete the circle in all kinds of ways.
Bosh has grown as a player since he left Toronto. He’s not the same athlete who could get to the rim at will, but he’s an old wise-head now in his 12th season, about to turn 31. He’s doing it a different way.
“It’s give and take. I’m not as quick and as fast and I don’t get to the free-throw line as [often],” he said. “It’s like, ‘Damn, if I would have had this knowledge and had that [athleticism], I could have been averaging this many,’ but it doesn’t work like that.”
But it’s worked out. He’s still an all-star. His rings are proof of his ability to find his way as complementary piece. Now he’s trying to get it done as the focal point again. He seems happy to meet the challenge.
“It was a right of passage for me, a little bit, but it was a great experience. I learned more about the game than I knew before,” he said. “I’m proud of that. It just shows that if you keep your mind focused enough to accomplish a goal you can reach the highest level.”