RealGM

Rudy Bernal showed the video to his team twice. The first time, the coach figured, his Lanier Voks would be impressed. He replayed it again moments before Lanier met Dallas Lincoln in a Texas Class 4A semifinal a dozen years ago. "This is what you'll be seeing all day if we don't get back on defense," Bernal warned. The tape depicted Lincoln performing one rim-rattling dunk after another. Lanier rewound the film over and over again, pointing at Bryan Hopkins, the team's 5-foot-10 do-everything guard, as he took off from the free throw line and finished spectacularly. Few noticed a tall, sinewy Lincoln player named Chris Bosh. Lincoln was taller and stronger than Lanier. It shot better and jumped higher. On average, the Voks starters gave up 6 inches and 50 pounds to their Lincoln counterparts. Most teams would have been intimidated by that video. If not, they would surely be dismayed before the game, when the teams stared each other down in a hallway before taking the court in front of nearly 15,000 at Austin's Erwin Center. Not the Voks. Bernal instructed his team to respect its opponents, not to fear them. They called themselves the Blonde Bombers, dyeing their hair and shooting long jumpers. They played hard, not dirty — like a team full of future coaches.1

Lanier stuck to its game plan. It failed to contain Hopkins, who amassed 26 of Lincoln's 48 points. But it limited his teammates by jamming the lanes and fronting Bosh, inviting him to shoot. "By the first quarter, we knew he didn't have a jump shot," said Joseph Martinez, a guard. "Every time he shot, his form, at the time, was pretty bad." Martin Cardenas guarded the 6-foot-9 Bosh. Cardenas played linebacker for the football team, where his 6-foot-3 frame was more suitable for patrolling the middle. In basketball, Cardenas looked up to giants. But he had watched tape on Bosh and noticed that he was seldom pressured or hurried. Bosh normally caught the ball unmolested and favored a left-handed hook shot. "I probably should have fouled out by the first half," Cardenas said. "But they let us play." Bosh would argue differently. Frustrated by the aggressiveness of his impish opposition, he tried to outmuscle them. "The worst part of it was his last foul," Cardenas said. "We both were going for a rebound and we both had it, but I just ripped it and he went over my head and they called a foul on him. That was pretty sweet to get him out like that."

Bosh fouled out with about two minutes left in the game. He finished with a measly four points. Throughout, Lanier maintained a small lead. Hopkins evened the game, 48-48, with only 15 seconds remaining on a dramatic 3-pointer.

Read more: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/934 ... ird-banana

The Eastern Conference finals were both indicative of Bosh's play and confirmation of the criticism he's received. He can be passive, allergic to the paint, absent from games, only to reappear in time for a Pacer to soar over him for a poster-ready dunk. He can be content to watch James dominate. He can also be too aggressive and disrupt Miami's rhythm, as in the start of Game 7 against Indiana. Or he can settle into the game and play within himself, the way he finished the conference finals. He is three years and now three Finals appearances into this grandiose experiment, and there are still times when it appears as though Chris Bosh is unsure of his role in the Heat hierarchy.