Chris Bosh’s time in Miami is often overlooked because he spent his tenure playing the third option to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. But Patrick Beverley is making sure that the Bosh disrespect will not go on anymore. He went as far as to say Bosh was the second most skilled player on the old Heat teams behind LeBron James. Beverley then opened up on the crazy things the star forward used to do in practice.
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Many forget that Beverley was originally traded to the Miami Heat on draft night after the Los Angeles Lakers selected him with the 42nd pick. It’s something he had to remind Shannon Sharpe about on the podcast Nightcap when the two were talking about Chris Bosh.
Sharpe said that people forget how valuable the former Raptor was in Toronto and that he had to sacrifice the most in Miami. That’s when Beverley jumped in.
“I got drafted to the Heat,” Beverley told Sharpe.
“Oh, did you?” Sharpe then laughed.
“My rookie year was LeBron James’ rookie year [with the Heat],” Beverley continued. “Unc, Chris Bosh was the second-best player on the team. The stuff he was doing in practice. You could ask Udonis Haslem, Juwan Howard… What he was doing to people in practice, I haven’t seen a four-man ever do to nobody. Nobody. He was destroying people in practice. Every single day.”
When we think of the big three Heat, we tend to think of Dwayne Wade as the second most skilled player on the team behind LeBron. So, it’s surprising to hear Beverley say that Bosh was perhaps the second-best player. But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard a former Heat player sing Bosh’s praise. As Beverley mentioned, Haslem has gone on the record saying the same thing.
Udonis Haslem’s praise for Chris Bosh
One year ago, on the OGs podcast with Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, and Jeff Teague, Haslem called Bosh the Heat’s most important player. That’s right. Not LeBron James, Chris Bosh.
“Our most important player, not our best player, but most important player was CB,” Haslem stated. “He was our most important player because if Bron went down, you could bring in D-Wade. And it’s not the same player, but you’re going to get similar results… We didn’t have another CB.”
It was an important distinction that Haslem made. LeBron was clearly the best player on those old Heat squads. But there is a good argument to be made that Bosh was the most important. Like Haslem said, Bosh was a unique player in that era of the NBA. Stretch power forwards weren’t as common as they are now. Bosh was a player ahead of his time.
In the end, this is why both Beverley and Haslem say that when Bosh was forced to retire due to recurring blood clots, it was sad. He still ended up in the Hall of Fame, as he was a dominant player in the league for 13 seasons. But Bosh, LeBron, and Wade could’ve achieved so much more on the Heat. And most former teammates think it all fell apart because of Bosh’s unfortunate injuries.
