TORONTO — After being called out
as a quitter by his former general manager, Chris Bosh says he "put his
heart and soul" into the Toronto Raptors organization and never gave up
on his team.
In an interview on Rogers Sportsnet on
Thursday night, Bosh responded to allegations made by Raptors general
manager Bryan Colangelo on Toronto radio station FAN 590 that claimed
the All-Star was "checked out" late last season and chose not to play
some of the Raptors' final games.
"I play this game as hard as I can
every time I step on the court," Bosh said. "On the back of my jersey it
says 'Bosh' … The Boshes are hard workers. We have a lot of pride in
what we do, in our jobs and in life."
The Raptors fell from a playoff
position at the All-Star break into ninth place in the Eastern
Conference at the end of the season. Bosh and former Cleveland star
LeBron James then joined Dwyane Wade in Miami as free agents this
summer.
That ruffled feathers in Toronto and
Cleveland, with Colangelo suggesting that the decision for the three
stars to play together had been "brewing for a while." He suggested the
threesome started firming up their plans while representing the East at
the NBA All-Star game.
Bosh claims he was still intent on
getting the Raptors into the postseason.
"What's so significant about the
All-Star break? We were in the playoffs. And I wanted to play in the
playoffs," he said. "That's all I thought about every summer."
Bosh also clarified comments he made
recently in the Miami Herald in which he called Toronto "different." He
said he didn't mean that as an insult to the city.
"Toronto is different," he said. "For
one, it's a different country. If you don't know you're in a different
country when you land then something is wrong with your senses. That's
not to say that Toronto is not a great metropolitan city. It is a
fantastic city.
"Different is not bad. I'm different.
That doesn't make me bad."
Bosh also claimed his decision to
leave Toronto was at the end of a long process and not something he had
committed to before the offseason.
"Everybody thinks, 'Oh, he was gone
as soon as the season was over.' It was the hardest decision I ever had
to make," he said. "As different as another country is, it was still home for me. I
had been there for seven years."