The Year of Chris Bosh? Sam Mitchell, Donnie Walsh Think So

Fellow FanHouse blogger Chris Bosh -- who also happens to be a perennial NBA All-Star -- is getting mad pub from high places all of a sudden. You'd expect his coach, Sam Mitchell, to be singing sweet about CB4's game ... but even from Smitch this is heavy:

"In the past, Chris would just come in ... not go through the motions, but just do enough," Mitchell said. "Now everything, every possession, every play is 100 per cent all out. I used to tell him all the time, the difference between [Boston Celtics star and former Mitchell teammate] Kevin Garnett and 95, 98 percent of the league is Kevin played like he practised. And Chris is getting it, I think the light done came on."

Bosh has been dynamite the past two seasons. If this sort of practice court fire is real, he can be even better? Remember, the kid's 23. Donnie Walsh, head of the Knicks, understands that. He tells Chris Smith of New York magazine how big a factor Bosh can be in the vaunted Summer of 2010.

"You know what's interesting to me? What year do you think [Chris Bosh] is a free agent?" The gifted Toronto Raptors forward also hits the market in 2010. "Yes," Walsh says. "And that kid's a great player. But nobody talks about him. It's all 'Oh, you've got to get LeBron!' Look, I understand that. But you look at that free-agent class, and there's a lot of really good players in it."

(Cough, tamper, cough.) So let me check here ... comparisons to a young Kevin Garnett and a juxtaposition with LeBron James, published within two days? DANG Chris. I'm glad the world might be able to see what us NBA fanatics have been feeding off for years now. Bosh is going to shock anyone who isn't ready for his ascension.