Chris Bosh is known for his excellent play on the court, but he has also become known for his theatrics and creating of ways of connecting with fans via social networking sites such as YouTube and Twitter. In 2007 Bosh posted a one minute seventeen second video of himself on YouTube in which he urged fans to vote for him to go to the All-Star game in New Orleans. It also no secret that Chris Bosh is a big fan of Twitter and that he has “tweeted” avidly about the free agency process. In fact many of Bosh’s tweets have been about his anticipation of the July 1st free agency period and his excitement about being courted by various franchises.

Obviously, no one can fault Chris Bosh for keeping his fans in the loop on everything he is doing. The one party that hasn’t particularly enjoyed all the tweeting and grandstanding is Chris Bosh’s current team the Toronto Raptors. The Raptor’s aren’t happy with how Chris has been so vocal about free agency and that he will be leaving Toronto a source has said. That is one of the main reasons that Toronto will likely no longer do a sign and trade with Bosh; but rather will have him sign with a different team entirely on his own. Toronto has also said that they haven’t heard a trade proposal yet for Bosh that has been overly enticing.
In a sign and trade scenario the Raptor’s would have signed Bosh to a maximum contract and then traded him to another franchise. This scenario works well for both sides because Bosh would receive a maximum contract and the Raptors would receive players in return for letting go of Bosh via a trade. It now looks as though Toronto will simply let Bosh sign with another team entirely on his own which means he will most likely not receive a maximum contract.

The Raptors change of heart will now restrict Bosh to teams that have the sufficient salary cap space to sign him. That list of teams includes the Los Angeles Clippers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knick, Miami Heat, and the Chicago Bulls.

I always thought that Chris Bosh’s theatrics may have been irritating to Toronto and it does appear that the Raptors are tired of it. The only reason I can see for not making this move would be to stick it to Bosh in a sense. Yes, the Raptors lose Chris Bosh’s huge salary by letting go of him but I would have thought that they would have loved to get some pieces back for him in return via a trade. You would think that someone would have offered an appealing trade proposal for Bosh but apparently nothing has interested Toronto thus far. Nevertheless it looks as though the sign and trade route that people previously thought would take place is losing steam and that Bosh will sign with a team independently.

Thoughts, comments, questions