When the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced their Finalists, Chris Bosh was left off of it.  This is his first year of eligibility after being forced to retire due to issues with blood clots in 2014.  He had this to say on his Instagram:

"I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a competitor, man. I've been competing my whole life. A lot of people don't really know that about me, but I'm a fierce competitor. Losing bothers me. Coming up short bothers me. It always has, you know, since the moment I started playing basketball and it kind of bleeds over into everything that I do. So I'll just get ahead of it, and so you hear this from me: I'm disappointed."

Only five men (down from ten) were named as Finalists this year, with three of those being former players (Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett).   The conspiracy theory in us feels like Bosh (and other previous finalists like Chris Webber and Ben Wallace) were put on the shelf for now to clear the path for Bryant, Duncan and Garnett.  With all due respect to Bosh, he is the clear number four behind those three.  The delay of Bosh also gives the Hall a headliner for the 2021 Class, and let’s be honest, they need to sell tickets to.

As always, we will be watching.