Heat rumors: How the Bulls almost hijacked Chris Bosh from Miami's Big 3

As Chris Bosh awaits the NBA Hall of Fame, he reminisced on events that almost completely altered his career, including a potential move to Chicago.

As former Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors legend Chris Bosh enters the Hall of Fame, everything is rosy for the NBA champion who made 11 All-Star teams and won 2 championships in South Beach. However, according to Bosh in a recent interview on the events that did and potentially could have altered his career, one decision could've changed everything back in 2010.

In a piece by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Bosh said he was being heavily pursued by the Chicago Bulls during his free agency after leaving the Raptors. In fact, the sway to join Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and what would have been another elite free agent or two, was so large that Bosh told an executive:

“I’m coming to play for the Bulls.”

As he continued reminiscing on that offseason he elaborated:

“‘They put a lot of pressure on me,' Bosh mused from Springfield, as he settled in for this weekend’s activities, with the Bulls emphasizing to him at the time that the Heat were not going to be able to sign himself, Wade and James.”

According to Bosh, the Bulls also claimed that they would've been able to land one of Wade or James if Bosh came, as well. The Heat's backup plan, had they not signed Bosh, was reportedly to sign Amar'e Stoudemire.

What a crazy alternate universe that would've been.

Indeed, even Pat Riley felt that things would have been gone much differently had Miami landed Stoudemire instead of Bosh:

“…I don’t know if it would have been as successful as it was with Chris, because Chris was the ultimate complement,“ Riley said, “I don’t want to use this term, but he was sort of the adult in the room at the time, to be able to separate all three egos.”

For all of Chris Bosh's incredible on-court accolades, it seems his most unique attribute was to be able to bring a team together under the common goal of playing for each other and playing for a championship. As he is enshrined in basketball immortality forever this weekend for an incredible career, a special place in the hearts of two franchise fanbases, and the most iconic rebound of all time, we should never forget that about him.