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TORONTO — Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh is finally on a championship-calibre team. Or at least he hopes so.
While his NBA squad is still a ways away from earning that kind of consideration, Bosh will get a golden chance at a title this summer after being chosen as one of the 12 players on the U.S. men's basketball entry at the Beijing Olympics.
“It was a very difficult selection process,” USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo said yesterday after the roster was announced. “When you have as many outstanding players as we have in [the United States], to select a group of 12 is obviously going to leave out a number of outstanding people.”
It's a dream come true for Bosh, who was on the American team that finished third at the 2006 world championships in Japan.
Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors celebrates another basket against the Orlando Magic in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterifinals. (Getty Images)
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Bosh was supposed to be on the team that won the Tournament of the Americas in a rout last summer, but withdrew as he continued to have problems with his foot and didn't want to jeopardize his NBA season.
But after a run of good health, Bosh is thrilled to have the chance to tread where his basketball heroes led.
“First and foremost when I think about the Olympics, I think about when I was a kid watching the 1992 Dream Team win it all,” Bosh said yesterday in an interview on The Fan 590 all-sport radio station. “The prestige of the gold medal, the prestige of the Olympics is so big to me. It's about that before anything else, just competing with the USA on my chest, that's a dream come true for me.”
Other Raptors players expected to take part in the Olympics include Jose Calderon (Spain) and Carlos Delfino (Argentina), while Rasho Nesterovic (Slovenia) will participate in the same last-chance qualifying tournament Canada is playing in next month in Greece.
The Canadian team began training at the Air Canada Centre last week.
Bosh's Beijing participation was made possible in part because NBA all-star Amare Stoudemire elected to rest his surgically repaired knees this summer and because Bosh's abilities as a strong-shooting big man complement nicely the more traditional skills of the likely starting centre for Team USA, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic.
The U.S. team was selected without a tryout. It will have a mini-camp this week in Las Vegas and meet there from July 20 to 25 to train and play an exhibition game against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans will open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.
“I think we have a really, really good team,” Bosh said of a roster that includes NBA stars LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and Carmelo Anthony. “The thing I like about this team is that everyone checks their egos at the door. We know what it takes.
“That first world championship, we were really trying to learn the international game and how to play as a team. But now everyone is ready to play basketball and play together because we know if we don't play together, we know things aren't going to happen the way we want them to.”
The United States will be trying to make amends for its bronze-medal performance at the Athens Games in 2004. It was the first American team to miss out on gold since NBA players were permitted to take part in the Games.
Bosh will also be trying to use this busy summer as a way to shake free of some of injury problems that have cost him 40 games over the previous three NBA seasons.
“I've been playing ball,” said Bosh, who led the Raptors in averaging 22.3 points and 8.9 rebounds a game in 2007-08. “I'm rested. I'm in shape. I feel good. I'm getting stronger. I could play 40 minutes right now. I've really been working hard.
“That's one thing I said I was going to do this summer. Last summer, I wasn't able to workout because of the plantar fasciitis and that kind of hindered my training. So this year, I decided I'm not going to stay away from basketball too long because I want to hit the ground running.
“I want to play a pivotal role on the national team and then I want to hit the ground running when training camp starts,” he said. “In order to do that I have to run, stay in shape and stay strong. If I do that, I won't be as injury-prone as I have been in the past.”
