Earlier on Wednesday, Chris Bosh kept up the public relations end of his campaign to get the Heat to clear him to play again by releasing a self-directed video talking about his love of the game and how the blood clots that ended his last two seasons have rekindled that. He also said he felt like the Heat had written him off.
Later in the day, Bosh took to Facebook for a live video streaming event where he again talked about his situation with Miami. Here is what Bosh said, via Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel:“It’s been a very, very difficult time,” he said on the webcast. “It’s been long, it’s been tedious, and I think that’s kind of the part of the process that makes it special and frustrating. It’s just this huge emotional rollercoaster.”
There also was a telling comment about the ongoing uncertainty.
“Really,” he said, “we’re just in the process of making sure that I can get back on the court.”
While Bosh is invited to the Heat training camp that opens next week, he has not yet been cleared to play by team doctors. Bosh underwent a physical with the team in the past 48 hours, but no results or details of those are yet available.
Bosh missed the end of the last two seasons with a blood clot issue that can be life threatening if untreated. The traditional treatment — which includes a regular dose of blood thinners — would make it impossible for him to play professional sports. Bosh is proposing a specific drug and regimen that would have the medication out of his system by game time. On top of all this Bosh is owed $75 million and, if the Heat can get an independent doctor to say he is permanently disabled and unable to play, they could petition the league to take that money off the books. (Two notes on that last strategy idea: First Bosh would still get paid, the money just wouldn’t count against the salary cap; second this backfires on the Heat if another team signs him and Bosh proves he can play — then the money counts against their cap and they don’t have the player.)
One way or another, this is all coming to a head in the next week or so as the Heat get ready to head to camp.
