Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 9:30 am  |  78 responses

Chris Bosh: I Didn’t Quit on the Raptors

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

After his former GM basically accused him of quitting on the team, Chris Bosh felt compelled to respond and tell his side of the story. And you’ll never believe this, but Bosh totally refutes Bryan Colangelo’s claim.

Talking to the Rogers Sportsnet, a sports television station in Toronto, Chris Bosh says he always played hard as a Raptor.

The AP has the quotes:

After being called out as a quitter by his former general manager, Chris Bosh says he “put his heart and soul” into the Toronto Raptors organization and never gave up on his team. In an interview on Rogers Sportsnet on Thursday night, Bosh responded to allegations made by Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo on Toronto radio station FAN 590 that claimed the All-Star was “checked out” late last season and chose not to play some of the Raptors’ final games.

“I play this game as hard as I can every time I step on the court,” Bosh said. “On the back of my jersey it says ‘Bosh’ … The Boshes are hard workers. We have a lot of pride in what we do, in our jobs and in life.”

Bosh also claimed his decision to leave Toronto was at the end of a long process and not something he had committed to before the offseason. “Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, he was gone as soon as the season was over.’ It was the hardest decision I ever had to make. As different as another country is, it was still home for me. I had been there for seven years.”

Whether or not Bosh “quit” on the Raptors, or if he planned on leaving the team since well before the end of last season is completely irrelevant at this point. What’s done is done.

It’s time for Bryan Colangelo and Chris Bosh to face their new realities, and make the best of those two very different situations.

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  • JTaylor21

    It’s funny that all these owners ala dan gilber and JC were willing to pay max money and then some to people that “allegedly” quit. They would’ve have been praising this guys and claiming what hard workers they’re if they had signed with their teams. Fuc*ing clowns.

  • kh

    Bosh brought it every night. If I guy gets hurt what can you do? In my eyes, his efforts were never in question. We’ll miss you in Toronto, but Good Luck in Miami!

  • c_cantrell

    who wants to play for the raptors anyway lol seriously.. i couldnt even see myself playing my heart out for a team like that.. n he did the exact same thing lebron did (minus the hour long special).. so where is all the bosh hate? this young man did what was best for him basketball and business wise.. at least he didnt say the raps would win a championship before bosh would lol

  • http://aol.com Run’N'Gun219

    ^word up… these owner are full of crap. when i hear all this rubbish coming from owners like Gilbert or Colangalo all i can think about is the Jay-z song ” It Was All Good Just a Week Ago

  • http://aol.com Run’N'Gun219

    ^word up.. these owner are crazy. when i hear all this coming from owners like Gilbert or Colangalo all i can think about is the Jay-z song ” It Was All Good Just a Week Ago

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    I don’t think these owners were willing to pay max money and at the end of the day, Bosh and LeBron just wanted out.

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^Darce..
    what gave it away lol of cource they wanted out.. n the money is not the issue at all as u can clearly see bosh n bron both took pretty big cuts in their contracts

  • http://shinefluid@aol.com CHI-TOWN SAID IT..

    riiiiiiiiiiiight!! funny how he got injured in a game against cleveland

  • http://slamonline.com Spaceship Jay

    You can’t quite on a team. That wasn’t playing in the first place.

  • http://slamonline.com Spaceship Jay

    *quit

  • http://sdfjklf.com Jukai

    He did quit on his team. It was pretty obvious.
    In fairness though, Bryan Collangelo tried his hardest and flopped hard surrounding Bosh with talent

  • Kundai

    he broke his face. even if he didnt wanna come back which isnt true it was probably becasue he was hesitant to break his face even more like Brian c and go F**k himself with his buddy dan Gilbert.

  • T-Money

    Dacre: Are you saying that Cleveland and Toronto wouldn’t have offered max money to Bron and Bosh? No offense, but are you stupid?

  • RM

    Cantrell please, big pay cuts? They took 10 million less over a 6 year period. If you’re making them out to be saints for that is just ridiculous. Bosh was cleared to play and he insisted on sitting out an extra 6 games after his injury. That, I believe, would be considered quitting on your team which were desperately looking for wins.

  • http://sdfjklf.com Jukai

    ^^^^
    Clearly has no idea about the concept of ‘money’ and ‘real world’
    I can see RM saying “whatever, so I only got a 3,000 demotion. It’s chump change. Nothing money.”

  • T-Money

    RM: they did what every basketball analyst said that they would never even consider. 10 mil is a lot of money. A sh!tload of money. Even if you’re already rich.

  • whereisbisondele?

    It’s over, and doesn’t matter.

    But BC isn’t talking about when Chris got his face broken, he’s talking before that, with the leg issue.

    Toronto’s still going to miss Bosh.

  • Clay

    “I play this game as hard as I can every time I step on the court.” That still doesn’t disprove the GM’s comments.

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    Bosh plays hard all the time, that’s why the Raptors had alot of playoff success.

  • namik

    F*ck this. How is Ron Ron’s amazingly insane interview not the top news yet???

  • The D Train

    How come Wade didn’t come out and defend Bosh’s “quitting” after he did likewise for his bridezilla Lebron?

  • The D Train

    Kind of disappointed actually. And here I thought Wade and Eboy were the two defenders of all things Miami Heat. E, I know you’ll chime in, but I am a bit disappointed in your man Wade not falling on the media sword for his friend.

  • Dagger

    I’m a Raptors fan, and I’ll always cheer for Bosh. He gave us 7 good years and was known as a very hard worker while he was here. He’ll be missed.

  • frank

    I agree with dagger. Bosh was a good guy.

  • Migs

    I’m with Clay on this – he didn’t exactly disprove the implications that he chose to sit for an extra 6 games despite being cleared to play. At the same time though, the guy’s a free agent heading into one of the biggest free agent frenzy’s we’ve seen – he had to look out for The Boshes on the back of the jersey, rather than the Raptors on the front.. It just looks worse because the Raps ran out of gas at back end of the season, ultimately missing the playoffs by a narrow margin.

  • Migs

    … however, the conspiracy theorist in me also wonders what Bosh’s stock would have been like heading into free agency had he not broken his face, made the playoffs, and gotten killed in the first round like they normally do.

  • Kundai

    This is actually boshes first major criticism actually tahts why i think wade hasnt come to his rescue (yet). Just wait if there is more boshes critisms to follow not only will wade back him up but lebron will aswell.

  • Sparker

    i liked the old chris more than the youtube chris, but he definitely earned his pay during his time as a raptor. as for this upswell of opinio of who would want to play for the raptors anyway… you can say that about 85% of the teams in the league, if you’re judging by consistent playoff success. they’re a genuine nba team as much as any other, and they’ve had some good years recently. they’re not a laughingstock and their attendance is good and no one has accused them of dicking their players around or being less than classy (although the fans haven’t done themselves any favours by continuing to boo vince). so unless you’re a dumb cracker who thinks that’s the only places worth living have a 7Eleven and a Denny’s around the corner (in which case you have enough problems as it is), just think of them as a fair to middling team until proven otherwise and get a little perspective on how tough it is to be among the NBA elite

  • IAMORANGE4EVER

    Me thinks Bosh will have a higher threshold for pain in Miami.

  • Groves

    you did play hard every time he hit court… the problem colangelo has with you chris is that he couldn’t get you on the court- even when you were fit… just saying

  • http://www.shawnkemp.com brotherwithwisdom

    shut up bc you know damn well that if he stayed with toronto you would be kissing this guy’s @$$. Same for dan gilbert.

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^RM…
    dude are u seriously trying to say 10 mil is not alot of money? lol no offense but are u insane? n no jk he quit on his team and he could have also jus been takin it easy to not risk re-injuring himself also.. but regardless it doesnt matter.. hes gone

  • rich

    Chris played his ass off everytime he was on the court, he carried the team on his back never complained, he basicly bled a pint of blood on the court and u think hes commin back to get swept in playoffs by cleveland? whats the point of ending up like amare’s eye when ur in a contract year… this is the last straw next time i see this guy in my press box, oh and i will hes gettin a piece of my mind i dont care if i never get free seats again he is not hatin on cb4. RETIRE THAT JERSEY NOW!!!!!

  • Noel

    10 mil is a lot of money. Guess he doesn’t have any Jew in him unlike Amare

  • Noel

    I should have kept that to myself. Please don’t ban me

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^rich..
    hes the best player the team has ever had.. i would be very disappointed if they did not retire his jersey

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Wow, just random hatred.

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^noel..
    dude jus shut up

  • goattree

    10 Mil is a ton of money…..however, it won’t be nearly that much when the smoke clears. The major downfall of playing for the Raps is the lidicrous amount of money that the players lose to taxes, whereas the situation is opposite in Florida (apparently).

  • kudos

    Who the F can say Bosh took a “huge paycut” when he decided to take less than 10% OFF his deal. Considering the tax-less state of Miami, he obviously wouldn’t actually be taking any kind of ‘pay cut’. Any loser who says otherwise has no concept of economics. Prolly still in elementary school. Did Bosh quit? Look up his last game on youtube. It’s hilarious.

  • SWIFTboy

    I see both sides of the story on this one. Bosh probably had his impending free agency on his mind when deciding whether or not to come back.
    That being said, I don’t really blame him. Getting bounced in the first round probably wouldn’t have changed anything.
    More importantly, regardless of if he ‘quit’ on the team at the end of this already hopeless season, it would only be after 6 and a half years of giving it his all. I have no ill will towards Bosh.

  • jose

    He had a career best ave last year. how’d he quit…(though i can understand that that there exists a difference between playing hard and getting stats…) i believe bosh didn’t quit tho

  • james

    YOU AINT GOTSTA LIE CRAIG YOU AINT GOTSTAA LIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

  • Shem

    Chris Bosh needs to just shut up and be gone. Honestly, he was medically cleared to play the last 6 games. There’s no I didn’t quit or didn’t give enough effort. It wasn’t about mentality. HE WAS MEDICALLY CLEARED TO PLAY. He can’t say I’d do anything for the city. He said he wanted to be the #1 player on his team. He wen’t for third. He said he absolutely deserved a max contract. He opted to not get one. He missed 12 games last year, 5 games in 08-09, 15 games in 07-08, 13 games in 06-07, 10 games in 05-06 and it goes on. 4 of his 7 seasons he missed 10+ games. He’s mentally fragile. Superstar players play through it. Kobe plays through absolutely ridiculous injuries. Same goes with LeBron etc. Bosh is NOT a number 1 guy on a team. He will never be a top 5 player in the L and will always be a #2 guy on a team that’s the 15-20 best player. You can’t build a team around him. I’m not a Bosh hater because he’s left. I’ve loved him for 7 yrs and really hopes he wins a championship eventually because he deserves it. But all I’m doing is giving the facts.

  • Shem

    @ Noel: Really, that wasn’t even funny. Who you trying to impress with that bullsh*t? That’s just pathetic man.

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^kudos..
    who said he took a huge paycut? why u runnin your mouth? your an ignorant nobody.. i said he took a paycut not a huge paycut.. yeah 10 mil does not have the same value to him as it would to us but it still is a chunk of money

  • ConeyIslander

    I was wondering what the hell was wrong with him when he didn’t skip town when his rookie deal ran out! He’s no good for the Craptors anyway…He speaks English as a first language!

  • T-Money

    i kinda hate slamonline right now. where are the regular commenters at?

  • http://google c_cantrell

    ^t-money..
    im here dude lol

  • http://slamonline.com Ghost

    ConeyIslander.Open a book, please.

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