Chris Bosh is in a frustrating situation to say the least. After the missing the majority of the last 2 season after battling a blood clotting issue, and now Bosh is now in a new battle, with the Miami Heat. Chris Bosh has been letting people know that he is healthy and ready to play. Even posting a workout video of him and former Heat teammate Dwyane Wade. But it doesn’t look like the Heat are willing to take the risk of letting him back on the court just yet.
Bosh is now skeptical that the Heat want him back at all. The all-star who played just 97 games over the last 2 season, and is looking to get paid $25 million next year, and $26 million the year after that, something the Heat don’t want to pay if he’s not going to be able to play. This is where the situation gets tricky. According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald:
The Heat has declined to say if Bosh will be cleared – Bosh has been awaiting word himself – but the team disputes any notion that it is trying to keep him off the court to remove his salary from the cap.
And here’s the problem: Though the Heat can apply to remove Bosh’s future salaries ($25.3 million in 2017-18, $26.8 million in 2018-19) from its cap as early as Feb. 9 (a full calendar year since his last game), the odds are against Miami being granted that relief if Bosh fights this.
The reason: To clear Bosh off the cap, the labor agreement says “a doctor that is jointly selected by the league and players association” must agree his condition “is career-ending, or severe enough to put him at risk if he continues playing.”
There is no doubt that the Heat would rather Chris Bosh healthy, then not healthy, but if they do decide to let go of Chris Bosh, they would have to do it by this Wednesday, which would allow them to pay him his owed $76 million, in yearly instalments for 7 years. It’s a difficult situation because Chris Bosh had just signed that deal, when things with his help started to dwindle. The heat got blindsided by the blood cot situation and so did Bosh, but there’s really no telling if he can come back and contribute, if not even play. Per Jackson:
The reason Bosh’s situation is so complicated: There are differences of opinion in the medical community about whether someone who has had two clotting episodes in 12 months (but like Bosh, doesn’t have the gene making him pre-disposed to clots) should remain on thinners, and whether an NBA player – more susceptible than non-athletes to leg trauma – should take the new blood-thinning medication that’s out of the system in eight hours.
“There are many players in different sports that do play with that condition, and they’re on and off programs on blood thinners and stuff,” Heat president Pat Riley said last month. “But I think when it comes down to a final protocol, or if it gets to a formula in how this has to be done, then that’s what we’ll deal with.”
It’s a tough situation for the NBA champion Bosh, who definitely wants to come back and play in the NBA. If the Heat won’t let him, that won’t stop him from trying different avenues and different teams. For now, everyone included myself just hopes that Chris Bosh gets healthy.
