After LeBron James bolted from South Beach back to Cleveland, most people expected Chris Bosh to be the next member of the Big Three to make his way out of town. After receiving a four-year max offer from the Houston Rockets to complete a new Big Three with James Harden and Dwight Howard, Bosh surprisingly decided to remain in Miami instead.
After terms of Bosh’s deal with the Heat were announced, five-years for $118 million, it became a bit clearer why the All-Star had decided to stay in South Beach. While it wasn’t the first time a player had taken more money to go to a less attractive situation, Bosh may have been the first player to actually admit so when he pretty much told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sentinel that was exactly what he did.
And then the Heat upped the ante to five years, $118 million to Bosh, trumping the maximum four-year, $88 million bid Houston could make as an outside bidder.
“It’s always business,” he said. “Nothing is ever personal. I think 100 percent of those dudes would have taken the deal I took.”
And yes, despite the possibilities of playing alongside Howard and Harden (and possibly Parsons, as well), the money mattered.
“It’s not always about money,” Bosh said. “But you do want your full market value. If you work your butt off to get to a certain point, you want to be rewarded for that.”
Can’t blame the man for being honest. We can all agree that anyone would be crazy to leave $30 million on the table, and at least Bosh is admitting such instead of giving us the generic “I love this team and city” answer that most other stars would give.