Chris Bosh didn’t mince words when reacting to not being named a finalist for the Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2020.
“I’m a fierce competitor. Losing bothers me,” Bosh said in a video he posted to his Instagram account Tuesday afternoon. “Coming up short bothers me. It always has since the moment I started playing basketball and it kind of bleeds into everything that I do.”
Bosh was in his first year of eligibility, yet he’ll have to wait at least another year before his name gets called.
“I’m not gonna lie, I’m disappointed I didn’t even get considered,” Bosh said. “I was really, really looking forward to going in with this class. I feel it still has the chance to be the best class ever assembled.”
The late Kobe Bryant, along with fellow former MVPs Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, will headline the class with the induction ceremony set to take place in late August.
The list of eight finalists was rounded out by Tamika Catchings, Kim Mulkey, Barbara Stevens, Eddie Sutton and Rudy Tomjanovich.
“I’ve been disappointed with my career coming up short,” Bosh continued. “I feel that I should still be playing basketball right now but that’s neither here nor there.”
Bosh’s career, which was split between the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat, was cut short in 2016 due to blood-clotting issues.
“It’s really, really disappointing because I’m a historian of the game and usually people with certain contributions, certain things happen, and that’s not the case. It is what it is.”
The 35-year-old Dallas native was an all-star in 11 of his 13 seasons, a two-time NBA champion with the Heat and led Team USA in rebounds en route to winning an Olympic gold medal in 2008. The fourth-overall pick from the stacked 2003 draft class averaged 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds over his 893-game NBA career.
Bosh made it clear that despite his disappointment he wasn’t going to get down on himself and used his video message to teach his fans a life lesson about how to handle all types of disappointment.
“You can’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself or blaming other people,” Bosh added in his caption. “You have to put in the work and get moving. Work towards your next goal or your next challenge. We’ve all been disappointed in the past, I know I have, especially when my career was cut short. But you can’t stop living your life.”
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