Pat Riley says Chris Bosh’s Heat career is over, another team ‘up to him’
After failing his physical with the Miami Heat prior to training camp, it didn’t look good for Chris Bosh’s hopes of playing again in the NBA as there were reports of clotting issues once again.
Heat president Pat Riley said on Monday that the organization is not working with Bosh on a return to the court and that while the big man is open-minded about trying to make a comeback, his career with the Heat is over. If he wants to try a comeback with another team, “that’s up to him.”
Miami Heat President Pat Riley said Monday that the team views Chris Bosh’s career with the team as over, that the team no longer is working toward his return.
“We are not,” Riley said in his office at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I think Chris is still open-minded. But we are not working toward his return.
“We feel that, based on the last exam, that his Heat career is probably over.”
Asked if he felt Bosh’s NBA career was over, as well, Riley said, “that’s up to him.”
CBS Sports’ Ethan Skolnick was at Riley’s press conference, and as you can see in the tweets below, there is no room for interpretation here. Bosh, it appears, is done in Miami.
Riley on Bosh: “There’s not a next step for us. It’s pretty definitive for us.”
— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) September 26, 2016
Riley: “We’re rebuilding now. We’re not tweaking like we did w/ Big 3 team. Or retooling, like we did after LeBron left.” But plans to win.
— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) September 26, 2016
Before we’d heard whispers and rumors that the Heat didn’t feel like Bosh would play again with his condition, but everybody seemed to hold out hope that he could safely prove them wrong. Unfortunately for Bosh, it sounds like that’s not an option either with or without blood thinners in his system. The clotting is still an issue and the dangers of playing on blood thinners are likely too grave for anybody to allow him to prove he can make it work.
The Heat coming out and directly going from there being no timetable for Bosh’s return after his failed physical to Riley saying Bosh’s Heat career is probably over seems to be the final word on the likelihood of a return to the court. Health can change and Bosh could find himself able to play in the near future at some point, but he has enormous hurdles to clear in order to convince any of the 30 NBA teams that he’s no risking his life by lacing up his shoes again.
