Twenty-one years later, Chris Bosh still has regrets. Just one year after graduating from Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets went all the way to the national championship, while Bosh, then a rookie for the Toronto Raptors, could only watch in support.
That 2004 title game between Georgia Tech and UConn took place in San Antonio, Texas. Bosh finds himself back in that city, working with AT&T at its Fan Fest ahead of the 2025 Final Four.
So much has changed with college basketball since Bosh played, and yet there are still a handful of similarities. Auburn has a big man in Johni Broome whose game resembles Bosh’s. Duke has a trio of one-and-done freshmen that are experiencing the pressure Bosh faced in his one season at Georgia Tech, and Houston’s head coach, Kelvin Sampson, recruited Bosh to come play for him at Oklahoma.
Bosh touched on those storylines in his interview with FOX Sports ahead of Saturday’s Final Four games:
Q: How are things in San Antonio? What are you doing at the Final Four, and what’s your specific role with AT&T?
Bosh: I’m here doing an event with AT&T and with the NBA Hall of Fame, too. The Hall of Fame always announces the Hall of Famers-to-be for the upcoming class during the Final Four weekend. [AT&T has] always been involved with basketball. It’s a pretty cool installation out here. It’s the Fan Fest at the Convention Center in San Antonio. There are baskets out here. Kids can play games. It seems to be like one of those cool places where you can hang out, and if you play basketball, you’re going to be overloaded.
Q: When you think about the Final Four and you look back at your college career, what do you think about?
Bosh: It was all too brief. Funny story: I got drafted in 2003 and, in 2004, Georgia Tech lost in the National Championship Game to UConn here in San Antonio. So, San Antonio is always a city I’m coming back to for the Final Four or championship situations. It’s kind of crazy.
Q: How many of your teammates were on that Final Four team? Did you feel like you missed out?
Bosh: All of them. I left to go to the draft, and we had another guy transfer, but he transferred to UConn. … Will Bynum, Jarrett Jack, Isma’il Muhammad, B.J. Elder — we had a really good team. It was kind of crazy watching them, and I was a rookie. I wanted nothing more than to be playing with my friends.
Q: Do you think if you were playing in this era, [is staying another year] something you would’ve considered?
Bosh: I don’t know if I would have considered it because basketball was my dream, but I will say that it’s a really fascinating option for kids that may or may not want to go. If guys are having a good time — and you’re getting paid anyway — then you can go back to school and get another year of development under your belt, get paid, be more familiar with the system. That’s one of the things I missed because I was one-and-done, so I never really got a handle on college or the college life. If a guy’s good enough, or a girl is good enough to go for two years or go back if they want to, I think that’s pretty cool.
Q: Johni Broome, you might see some of yourself in his game. What do you think about how he plays?
Bosh: It’s so fascinating to see how much the game has opened up. The ability to handle the ball, play in the open floor, the freedom to do those things … to shoot the 3. I think Johni … in particular, they’re taking advantage of that freedom, right? Being able to come in with a developed game and be able to display it. Before, even if you could shoot 3s, you’d have a coach be like, ‘Yeah, you’re not going to shoot 3s. I’m going to bench you.’ They didn’t necessarily play to their strengths. I see a lot of that in the younger generation today. They’re able to come in right away, play to their strengths, do the things they can do and the system can build around them, as opposed to you trying to adapt your game to another coach or another team.
Kelvin Sampson on changing Houston’s culture, Cooper Flagg, Final Four
Q: You were one of the [few] that could do that in the NBA at a high level, so how do you think you were able to set the table for more people at your position — like Broome — to have the freedom to shoot from deep?
Bosh: I think it was not only doing it but being effective at it. I always looked at guys like Sam Perkins, Cliff Robinson, Tony Kukoc, Dirk Nowitzki — just going down the line of great players that played the big position — shot the 3. I’m sure they look at the game now and say, ‘I should have been shooting five or six a game.’ I look at it like that, too. At the tail end of my career, I was seeing how the 3-ball was really evolving the game, and I just wanted to solidify myself a little more in that conversation. I didn’t get a chance to do it all the way, but you could see the wave coming. So, for players like Johni now, for him to just come in and just be who he is and play inside, play outside, handle it, do everything, that’s a great thing.
Q: Was that ever an issue with you? Did you ever have coaches that tried to hold you back from having a more perimeter-based game?
Bosh: No, I was lucky. Now, I did have coaches that said, ‘Play to your strengths. We want you to go down low.’ Because the game was about that, right?’ But I shot 40% from 3. It was something that was always there.
Q: Regarding Cooper Flagg, what do you think the pressure of that is like — being a one-and-done yourself?
Bosh: He has a lot more pressure to deal with because I was done already. My pressure transferred. I had to worry about signing with agents. He still has the gift — and the curse — of playing basketball right now on the biggest stage, but that’s what you want. For him, he can stay in the zone … until this season is over, but once it’s over, he’s going to start that process of interviewing with teams, having his workouts, the pre-draft, all those things you have to go through. … I was in the same boat. You’re going to play for your third team in three years; you’re going to have your third coach in three years; you’re going to move to a new place again for the third time in three years. It’s coming at him fast, but that’s what happens when you’re a grown-up. It comes at you fast, and you [have] got to adapt.
Q: How do you try and stay in the moment?
Bosh: It forces you to. … You have no choice but to … because, even in the draft, he’s probably going to the No. 1 team, but you never know what’s going to happen with the lottery and all that. So, it’s kind of just small steps. It forces you to stay in the present because you don’t know what’s going to happen the next day or the next week.
Q: Lastly, what are you thinking for your picks for this upcoming weekend?
Bosh: I’m not going to lie, it’s real hard not to go with Duke. It’s such a classic, blue-blooded Final Four. I know the old-school Houston, Phi Slamma Jama dudes with the Jheri curls, they’re going to be coming out in droves. It’s kind of hard not to go for Houston, man, they deserve one. Coach Sampson, I think he was coaching in college when I was getting recruited, so I’d love to see them get one. You know, Florida is always strong and in it. Auburn, they’re turning their program into something, so you know I guess if I were to pick one, I go for Houston.
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