Raptors' all-star Bosh denies getaway plans

[Rios15]

Raptors' all-star Bosh denies getaway plans
Forward blasts ESPN report claiming he told GM he won't re-sign in T.O. in 2010

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Chris Bosh isn't going anywhere both because of his own desire to turn around his team's fortunes and because the Raptors president and general manager continues to see him as the "cornerstone" of the franchise that has underachieved this season.

On another rocky day for a listing team that's 11 games below .500 and facing its most difficult three-game stretch of the season, Bosh and Bryan Colangelo spent time defusing a media report about the all-star's future and promising to find some way to turn things around this season.

With an emphatic "No. No. No, I have not told him that," Bosh shot down an ESPN report that he informed Colangelo that he'd leave as a free agent in 2010 and said the only conversations with his boss have been about trying to make things better now.

"Me and Bryan talk about how to improve this team and what we can do to get better as far as personnel-wise, pushing the guys, practising better and what I can do to get better," said Bosh.

Colangelo, while admitting his 19-30 team has "underachieved" this year, said he would not entertain any trade offers for his 24-year-old, four-time all-star.

"He's not on the trade market, he's not informing anybody here that he's got intentions to do something different and 2010 is a long ways away for everybody," said Colangelo. "Chris, as has been the case since I've been here, is the cornerstone of the franchise right now and that's how we're going to continue to look at it."

The latest in what's going to be an ongoing story until the free-agency class of 2010 is on the market – including LeBron James and Miami's Dwyane Wade – came Sunday when ESPN entertainer Stephen A. Smith, citing no sources, said Bosh had already informed Colangelo he wouldn't re-sign when he's a free agent in 16 months.

"It obviously didn't happen," said Colangelo. "It's one of those things that unfortunately I guess there's an obligation to answer the question. ... There just doesn't seem to a lot of accountability with respect to the topic sometimes."

Making matters worse for Toronto is the team's recent woes and its 14th-place standing in the 15-team Eastern Conference. Although they began last night only 3 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot, recent bad outings and an overall inconsistency have created calls for massive roster changes.

Colangelo said he won't make a trade simply to do something but admitted his pre-season assessment that this was the best Raptor team "on paper" in his three seasons here hasn't become reality.

"As Chris so wisely put it (Sunday) the paper isn't worth much," he said.

"You've got to play the games on the court and he's obviously correct in saying that. We've under- achieved this year and we're not getting the most out of this team. We need to figure out a way to either put the right group together and make it work or make it work with the current group."

This is not the first time Smith, a regular panellist on various ESPN chat shows, has run afoul of Bosh with what the Raptor considered an outlandish and blatantly incorrect statement.

Last year during the NBA playoffs, Smith likened Bosh to former NBAer Manute Bol, a 7-foot-6 string bean known for being a physical pushover.

Bosh called Smith "classless" at the time.

"I don't even know what to make of it," Bosh said of the second incident. "Maybe I take things personally. We all think of things in different ways. You've got to tell me, was that (the Bol reference) bad? Was it good? I don't know. To me, it was an insult. To me. And you know I let him know that and he apologized later. Now we're in new territory."

But Bosh has bigger issues to contend with than his plans for 2010. The Raptors have lost two straight – and Bosh was ineffective in both games – and now face powerhouses Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets in a four-night span beginning tonight.

"I've been thinking about this year, I'm thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers," he said. "That's what we say all the time, you know. Can I tell the future? No, I cannot. I just have to wait until that situation comes up. Right now, I deal with the current thing because like I always say, if I'm worried about the future, I won't play right now and then nobody will want me so it won't matter."

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/581347