As a fan of the Miami Heat my heart absolutely sank when I saw Chris Bosh doubled over in pain on the court yesterday during game one of their series against the Pacers. At this point we do not know the extent of the injury, but he has an abdominal strain that could very well keep him on the bench the remainder of the playoffs. The cause of my sadness is not what you would think, however. The root of my discontent comes from what I perceive as the only two possible outcomes that I see, if Bosh does in fact miss the rest of the postseason.
The first, and honestly preferable outcome, is that the Heat go on to win the Championship. In order for this to happen LeBron and Wade will have to step up their games, or as I like to say, go into beast mode. Obviously it will take more than two guys to win a championship though. The man that will need to step in for Bosh to make an impact is Udonis Haslem, who, up to this point, has had a rather sub par season, shooting only 42% from the field. Now as a Heat fan, this is the ultimate goal, and I would love nothing more than for them to win a Championship. However, it will unfortunately be bitter sweet. If they do go on to win it all without Bosh we will all be subjected to even more talk that completely belittles his role on the team. Many people already claim that Bosh is overrated and that the Heat only have a "Big 2". This is far from the truth and anyone who watches the Heat regularly know this, but thanks to mass media the casual NBA fan thinks Bosh is an expendable member of the team. A Bosh-less Championship would only strengthen the resolve of these people and all of us will have to spend the off-season hearing how Bosh is all hype and should just be traded away.
The second outcome is obviously that the Heat once again fail to win a Championship, which would give Heat "haters" a field day. LeBron James has been nothing short of spectacular this season but given the pressure, that he frankly put on himself ("Not one, not two, not three...), the only thing that matters is whether or not he wins a championship. This criticism is fair, because if you're going to talk that big then you need to back it up. However, I am quite honestly sick of hearing about it on a daily basis on ESPN. I understand that injuries are a part of the game that every team has to deal with, but losing Bosh really is a huge blow. More important than his 18 points and 8 rebounds per game, is the fact that on any given night when James or Wade is struggling, he has the ability to step up and be the guy, as he demonstrated throughout this season. The biggest problem I will have if this happens is that even if LeBron plays out of his mind we will still only hear about how he cannot win big games. He could average a triple-double for the finals, finish every game strong, yet he will still be blamed if the Heat come up short.
As I've already stated, I clearly want the Heat to bring home the Championship this year. I would also like to add that I hope Bosh's injury isn't serious and that he does come back and play an integral role on a Championship team. However, if that does not happen, then one way or another we can expect another off-season of controversy in South Beach.
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