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An open letter to Chris Bosh...
Nah, I'm not gonna to do that. That literary device has been beaten into the ground so much by bloggers and message board posters that I don't think I could have gotten the stink of "hack" off me if I went there. (Meanwhile, using a Simpsons reference in my headline is soooo original — but I digress.) I would like Bosh to read this, however, since I'm not sure that anyone in his inner circle has the stones to set him straight.
Raptors fans at the Air Canada Centre have understandably been pretty unhappy lately about the apparent lack of effort and losing results delivered by the team lately. Inevitably, reporters are going to ask players what they think about being booed — and a reporter can only hope that the team's star player gives a snarky response similar to what Bosh said: "I don't boo. If you have a bad fiscal year, how about I boo you?"
Now, I understand that Bosh is pissed off about how this season is going and I think it's safe to say that booing the players when they're down doesn't really help anything. However, that's not really the point. Unless the ACC is going to institute a "no-booing" policy (which wouldn't actually shock me, now that I think about it), the ticket-buying fans have every right to boo when they feel like they're getting ripped off. More specifically, this team has shown a consistent lack of heart, execution and intelligence on the court and I don't blame Raptors fans for calling them out for that.
Does it hurt to get booed by your own fans? Of course it does. No right-minded athlete enjoys that. But rather than lashing out at fans like Bosh repeatedly does, the smart response would be to acknowledge that the team isn't performing up to expectations and say that — as the leader of this team — he's going to try to do whatever it takes to get the fans back on their side.
Whether or not Chris Bosh actually feels that way (he clearly doesn't) is irrelevant. Charles Barkley famously said that athletes shouldn't be role models. But find me a GM that think it's OK for any of his players to criticize the team's fans. When you play for a pro sports team, you're paid to be a representative of that team. And part of your job should be to make the paying customers feel like you're trying your hardest to earn the salary they're funding. If the fans think the players aren't living up to that end of the bargain, they're going to boo you — whether they're Toronto fans, Detroit fans, Chicago fans or whatever.
Speculation is building that part of the reason Bosh will leave Toronto in 2010 is because of the treatment he's getting from local fans lately. If he thinks it's bad here, he should try playing in New York — where the fans will boo your mother for simply giving birth to you if you get on their bad side.
Oh sure, there are probably apathetic markets he could go to where he won't get booed — or the attendance will be consistently sparse enough that the boos won't resonate enough to have an effect. Bosh can feel free to sign with Memphis or Charlotte in 2010 if he simply wants to be left alone to post his 20 and 10 numbers and collect his league-maximum salary in a losing cause. But I suspect that Bosh's head has grown to the point that he wants to be a star in a major market — and he's going to be in for a rude awakening if he thinks fans of any major-market team are going to be any less demanding than these ones.
If I'm in Bryan Colangelo's shoes, I would call Chris into my office and tell him to shoot a video blog where he apologizes for the team's recent performance and for blaming the fans for booing. You want to be paid like a superstar and have the respect that comes with being a veteran and a team leader, Chris? Then, you need to act like a veteran leader instead of a thin-skinned, petulant rookie.
I do wonder if Colangelo would be willing to risk alienating his star player further by making that kind of request. What I know is that there is a short list of players in the NBA who really deserve the "kid gloves" treatment from their organizations — and Chris Bosh is not on that list. 
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