PORTLAND, Ore. _ With the Heat announcing Monday it will retire Chris Bosh's jersey later this season, it's a reminder of all he accomplished with the organization.
It's also a reminder of what could have been if blood clots hadn't derailed Bosh's playing career.
This would have marked the fifth and final season of the five-year, $118 million contract Bosh, 34, signed to remain with the Heat in the summer of 2014, which is the same offseason LeBron James left Miami to join Cleveland in free agency.
"A lot," guard Dwyane Wade said in advance of Tuesday's road game against the Trail Blazers when asked if he thinks about what could have been with a healthy Bosh. "Obviously, you don't want to do it too much. But especially right after he got hurt when we made the trade for Goran (Dragic), Joe Johnson came in and we were all excited going into All-Star break. We had a moment of excitement that we were getting the ship right back to where we needed it. And he went out.
"It just changed everything from the standpoint of this organization with what happened next and what happened next. It's a very unfortunate thing that happened to him and to the franchise."
That was in the middle of 2015-16, when Bosh was forced to stop playing due to blood clots for the second time and he hasn't played in an NBA game since. The original diagnosis came midway through the 2014-15 season.
Some with the Heat believe a rotation that included a starting lineup of Goran Dragic, Wade, Joe Johnson, Luol Deng and Bosh with young players Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and Hassan Whiteside coming off the bench could have competed with the Cavaliers in the 2015-16 playoffs. Even without Bosh, the Heat finished just one win away from facing the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals that season.
"I do from the standpoint that team we put together two years after, the one with Luol and Goran and Joe Johnson," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked if that possibility ever crosses his mind. "Even as is, we were one game away from being in the Eastern Conference Finals. CB was a difference maker. That team, I think, legitimately had a chance to contend. But you never get to find out."
Instead, Miami is left celebrating Bosh's career during a season he was signed up to play in. The Heat will retire Bosh's No. 1 jersey during a halftime ceremony held during a March 26 home game against the Magic.
"I think we all know it wasn't if, it was when," Wade said of the Heat honoring Bosh. "It's good he gets to do it this year. I know as he's been back around in Miami, back at his home, back around the team, it's good that they can come to some type agreement on when it should happen."
