Basically, says Chris Bosh, he is laughing all the way to the bank, just doesn’t know yet whose bank.
Everywhere he goes, people on the street want to throw the probable NBA maximum $90 million of their favorite team’s owner’s money at him. Not only is Bosh six months away from being allowed to take it, but he figures the only way to play his intentions straight is with a face that’s not.
“People ask me that all the time when I go to a city, on the street, on a videophone and stuff like that,” said Bosh. “All I can do without trying to offend anyone is laugh.”
So there was nothing personal against New York in his prolonged guffaw in response to a plea from a Knicks fan contest winner on UStream. The emergent best power forward in the NBA was just trying to keep it light while Donnie Walsh, with money to offer either his own heart-and-soul power forward or the top one in the NBA, decides whether David Lee still is only Chris Bosh light.
Lee, just back from his grandfather’s funeral in St. Louis, had more answers last night for the guy who was guarding him, Andrea Bargnani, than for Bosh. After Bargnani had celebrated excessively his third trey of the first half, Lee mimicked the Toronto center after a dunk and earned a technical.
“The refs didn’t think it was funny,” said Lee after the Raptors closed out Laugh Night with the last one, 112-104.
Lee did the best he could guarding Bosh. But there is not much guarding of Bosh going on in the NBA this year.
While Danilo Gallinari was nailing 5-of-10 3-pointers and Bargnani was making 5-of-6 on Italian Heritage Night, Bosh chipped in an explosive, efficient and varied 7-for-10 field goals in the scant 30:55 that he was needed on behalf of a team that shot 53 percent.
“It was a beautiful thing, man, when they are shooting like that,” said Bosh, who finished with 18 points. “Seemed like they knew [what night it was]. They were on fire.”
So will be the phone lines on July 1 for LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Bosh, who has taken his game up another level in his walk year — gee, what a coincidence.
“That was the idea coming into the season,” Bosh said. “I wanted to do a lot better, be more consistent, wanted to become a big-time player.”
Now he is in search of a big-time team. If the Raptors, who demonstrated a lot of weapons, apply themselves defensively, they will be a lot better than the .500 club they became last night, maybe one good enough to keep Bosh past the trading deadline and take their chances on re-signing him.
If that’s not going to work out, or if it turns out Wade is not keeping a light on for Bosh in South Florida, perhaps when he comes back to the Garden on Jan. 28 for the Raptors’ final visit he’ll want to take another look around.
“Not really, I have played my fair share of games in The Garden and different places,” Bosh said. “I’m out there trying to win basketball games.”
Looks like more than ever, he knows how.