By NICHOLAS BRUENS
Chris Bosh is one of the NBA’s best big men and was on his way to another amazing season. He was averaging 19.1 points per game and 46.7 percent shooting. Sadly, his season was cut short when he was diagnosed with blood clots and forced to end his 2015-16 season.
That was eight months ago. Since his diagnosis. Bosh has been doing everything in his power to rejoin his teammates for training camp. He believes he has done so.
“I’m ready,” Bosh told the Bleacher Report podcast, “Uninterrupted.” “I’ve done all my work. I’ve done what I need to do working with the doctors.”
Bosh, who had the previous two seasons cut short by blood clots, plans to attend the Miami Heat’s training camp in Nassau, Bahamas, when it opens on Sept. 27.
The story presents an interesting choice for the news media and how they will follow it. They can continue to portray it as a mystery or they could make this an uplifting comeback tale of an athlete overcoming odds.
Until this point, sports journalists have presented Bosh’s story as a “will he or won’t he” story about whether or not he could return or forced to retire. This angle is warranted considering the severity of the condition and that he has had multiple occurrences.
But now that he has stated he is back and “ready to play,” the news media have a chance to change their angle to a more positive view. Bosh could be represented as a hero type character or role model as some who represents the notion that people shouldn’t let the issues be handicaps. Or, we could see the other, more pessimistic, view, asking if he will be forced to end his season again.
That’s what makes this story interesting, it allows for the news media to look at how they wish to present it and make a decision based on how they want to portray Bosh as central figure of the story.