In a far less emotional outburst than the sort leveled at LeBron James by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo told FAN 590’s Bob McCown that departed free agent F Chris Bosh gave far less than 100% effort during his final months with the team.  From the Toronto Sun’s Ryan Wolstat :

œDespite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games … I™m not even questioning Chris™ injury. I™m telling you he was cleared to play subject to tolerance on his part, and the tolerance just apparently wasn™t there and he chose not to play, Colangelo said.

œThe fact that our season was spiralling downward and we were hoping he™d come back sooner and we were also dealing with a few other things at that point … we were really struggling there.

Colangelo went on to elaborate:

œWhether he was mentally checked out or just wasn™t quite into it down the stretch, he wasn™t the same guy. I think everybody saw that, but no one wanted to acknowledge it.

œAt the same time, I never felt we were quite in the game (in terms of signing Bosh to a new contract). There was too much out there, too much built up for him to take an easy out here, and he decided to do that.

Colangelo also said Bosh was hard to build around.

œWe tried in vain to put pieces around Chris. Different pieces, different styles. It didn™t work out.

Though Wolstat isn’t quite down with Colangelo’s attempts to demonize Bosh, he does buy into the notion LeBron and D-Wade’s newest playmate had little to gain by going all-out down the stretch (“why continue to run through walls for the team and put his $100 million-plus South Beach payday at risk?”).   Left unmentioned, however, is that Bosh’s “easy out”, as characterized by Colangelo, amounted to signing for less money in Miami.  Cleveland can legitimately complain James abandoned not only his hometown team, but a bona fide contender.  Toronto can make neither claim. As far as Colangelo’s attempts to build around Bosh, granted, the former did bring in Hedo Turkoglu (ie. someone else accused of quitting on Toronto).