Former Heat star takes advantage of unique opportunity for long-awaited farewell

Over this past weekend, a farewell game for recently retired Goran Dragic was held in his hometown of Slovenia. Dragic, known as “the dragon”, put together an outstanding NBA career that featured himself being one of the best point guards of Miami Heat history. The energy, competitiveness and ability to create for himself and others provided the Heat with All-Star caliber production during his tenure.

In some outside news related to the game, Chris Bosh made a brief on-court appearance during the outing. He scored his first points since 2016 in a basketball game from the free throw line. Bosh, another Heat legend, suffered a heartbreaking career-ending illness during that 2015-16 season. He spoke to the European Basket News media outlet on the time he spent grieving following his forced retirement:

"Any time dealing with loss and death and stuff like that, you go through grief… I got over it. I believe it made me stronger. It made me focus on being more of a father. (I won) a couple of championships. Got to meet some great people, have some great teammates, great stories, great locker rooms. I'm a lucky guy."

- Chris Bosh

Unfortunately, Bosh was never able to receive a proper send-off before going down with blood clots. His first experience with the illness came during the 2014-15 season, and he made a comeback the following year. But yet again, the ailment came back up, sidelining him for the entire second half and postseason during the 2015-16 season.

Like the warrior that he is, a third comeback attempt was in the works for the 2016-17 season, but doctors wouldn’t clear him heading into training camp. Bosh also talked to Basket News about not receiving that much-deserved farewell for his career:

"I wasn’t going to play (today) because I haven’t played in so long, but I just wanted to be out there with him (Dragic), celebrating his career. Everybody doesn’t get a chance to do this, you don’t even get a farewell sometimes."

- Chris Bosh

Bosh was an 11-time NBA All-Star and reached All-Star status each of his six years in South Beach. He won back-to-back championships with the franchise in 2012 and 2013, including the legendary season-saving rebound that led to Ray Allen’s game-tying 3-pointer.

In his final NBA campaign in 2016, he averaged 19.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists on 46.4% shooting across 53 games played. Had he not gone down that year, Miami was well positioned to go on a deeper playoff run than they already did without him as the third seed in the Eastern Conference. He rounded out a balanced starting five that included Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng and Hassan Whiteside. 

Bosh's sacrifice after joining the Big 3 with Wade and LeBron James doesn’t get talked about enough. 

His No. 1 jersey will forever be in the Heat rafters for the Hall of Famer. But his sudden retirement showcased more than ever to not take anything for granted in sports.