It’s been almost 15 years since Chris Bosh played for the Toronto Raptors, and many fans now consider his days with the team a distant memory.
Bosh spent the first seven seasons of his Hall of Fame career with the Raptors before joining Dwyane Wade and LeBron James in Miami for four consecutive NBA Finals appearances, winning it all twice.
But for Bosh, playing basketball was a distant memory until he pulled on his jersey last weekend at Goran Dragic’s retirement event in his home country of Slovenia.
Bosh hadn’t played much basketball since the 2015-16 season with Miami, when a midseason blood clot discovery abruptly ended his NBA career.
“Everything went well. I won some championships. I met great people, I had great teammates, great stories, great locker rooms. I’m a lucky guy,” he told BasketNews’ Mindaugas Bertys while reflecting on his NBA journey.
But Bosh admitted that ending his career so early had not been the easiest thing on his mental health.
“It was very hard,” he said. “To be honest, it was the end of my career… Any time you deal with a loss, a death or something like that, you go through a grieving process. I had to do that for a few years. I got through it. I think it made me stronger. It allowed me to focus more on being a father.”
Chris Bosh is honest about his retirement.
“That was the end of my career… Any time you deal with a loss or a death, you go through a grieving process. I had to do that for a few years.” pic.twitter.com/vqvgx2AktA
– Mindaugas Bertys (@the_mindaugas) August 24, 2024
Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Nikola Jokic were also in action this weekend in Slovenia.
Bosh, now 40, didn’t see much action at the star-studded event but decided to play after seeing that his former Raptors teammate Rasho Nesterovic was also playing.
“Once I saw Rasho Nesterovic come out, I thought, ‘Okay, I can go up and down a few times'” Bosh said“Rasho is great. We’re all older now, but those years in Toronto kind of brought me back to reality.”
You can see the clip of Bosh in costume below:
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