Underrated bigs recognize underrated bigs. Al Jefferson, during his appearance on the ‘Out the Mud’ podcast, gave Chris Bosh his flowers and explained why the two-time NBA champion was a menacing matchup.
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“Chris Bosh, I hated guarding him, man,” Jefferson told Tony Allen and Zach Randolph. “He just start shooting them threes. I got a little uncomfortable to be on defense out there around that three-point line.”
Apart from Dirk Nowitzki, Bosh was one of the few power forwards who were ahead of their time in terms of their range, and it was his ability to space the floor that made him an essential but underrated part of Miami’s Big 3.
Though he wouldn’t attempt over one three-pointer per game till his 10th season, Bosh was a premier mid-range scorer from the get-go. That, in conjunction with his willingness to let it fly from deep, forced the opposing bigs to respect him out on the perimeter.
As Jefferson recalled, that was not a regular ask at the time. Though, CB was never your regular big man. Big Al added, “Even Chris Bosh like, when he was in Toronto, man, like he — I hated guarding him, man. In the post, he was like a guard, like, he was different, man.”
Z-Bo, who was also one of the top ten power forwards during Bosh’s time, recognized why the 11-time All-Star was such a handful to defend.
“His game is like today’s game,” Randolph explained. “Chris be on that perimeter, he picking and popping and, like you said, you got to be on that motherf***er.”
Bosh and his gravity opened up lanes for Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to attack during their time in Miami. Though he would never win a Finals MVP, his teammates have always acknowledged the value he brought.
Dwyane Wade reminded the world of Chris Bosh’s greatness
In 2021, Wade joined his former teammate Shaquille O’Neal on ‘NBA on TNT’. During their segment, the Hall of Famers fielded a fan question that asked if Chris Bosh was ever better than Julius Randle. D-Wade in particular was not a fan of the comparison.
“A guy in his seventh year in the NBA, that’s made one All-Star team, that’s really trying to build his career, that’s unfair to him [Randle]. And it’s definitely unfair to Chris Bosh because he’s one of the legends in our game. Just because he wasn’t loud, just because he wasn’t fancy, does not mean that he was not a great player. So, that’s a dumb question,” the 13-time All-Star shared on TNT.
Before he joined the Heat, CB was entering his prime, posting a career-high 24.0 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 36.4% from deep. As a result, when he joined the Heat, defenses couldn’t treat him like the third option, and he would use that to his advantage by drawing the opposing bigs out of the paint.
Wade knows just how effective the #4 was, as Bosh earned six All-Star selections during his stint in Miami and helped the team win back-to-back rings. O’Neal shared Flash’s sentiment but in fewer words. “I’m not gonna even dignify that question with an answer,” the four-time NBA champion added.
Shaq and Wade witnessed Chris Bosh’s historic career first-hand, and they were not about to allow recency bias to re-paint his legacy.
