Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh goes to the net against New Jersey Nets' Kris Humphries, left, during the first half of their NBA basketball game in Toronto, February 3, 2010.MARK BLINCH
Chris Bosh's twitter feed suggested the Toronto Raptors' all-star spent the last day before the rest of his career at home in Dallas, with his girlfriend and a buddy, watching sports on television.
If he was feeling contemplative ("It's funny how years come down to hours and minutes") or worried about his immediate future ("Trying to ease my nerves. Tried to take a nap, but I can't sleep"), the rest of the NBA was abuzz with rumour and speculation.
As of 12:01 EDT Thursday morning, the most anticipated free-agency period in NBA history was actually here, but what it will mean for Bosh, the Raptors and the rest of the league was unknown Wednesday.
Early Wednesday there was a report that the Miami Heat had reached a deal with the Raptors in which Bosh would sign a six-year, $130-million (U.S.) contract and be sent to Miami for a package of players including Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers and perhaps Canadian national team member Joel Anthony, who is a restricted free agent. But an NBA source with knowledge of the situation cast doubt on that, saying Miami needed to hang on to the players it has in order to fill out a roster around Bosh, Dwyane Wade and perhaps LeBron James.
"There is no truth to that," the source said. "Miami might be a player [in the Bosh sweepstakes] but not with players."
Other teams with room under the salary cap to sign multiple top-tier free agents include the New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls.
Chances are the Raptors will try to get some players in return, if only to try to stay above the salary cap. A sign-and-trade involving Bosh would leave Toronto about $8-million under the salary cap while holding a trade exception worth about $16.5-million, which would allow the Raptors to absorb players with salaries totalling that amount.
But Raptors president Bryan Colangelo said last week that his preference was to stay above the salary cap, which would enable Toronto to attract players with the mid-level exception, a provision available only to teams above the salary cap. The cap was $57.7-million in 2009-10 but won't be known for next season until later this month.
It's expected the Raptors would be looking for a mix of players, draft picks and a trade exception to maximize their opportunities to replace Bosh, their leading scorer and rebounder and a six-time all-star.
But Bosh is just one piece of a diamond-encrusted puzzle moving around an unknowable NBA landscape. Prompted by the uncertainty of the current collective agreement - which expires in June of 2011, potentially ushering in a more restrictive revenue-sharing agreement between owners and players - some of the league's biggest stars have positioned themselves to cash in while the opportunity is there, and several teams have manoeuvred to get themselves under the salary cap to court them.
While James, Bosh and Wade headline the class, other prominent free agents include the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki, the Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson of Atlanta, Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen of Boston.
"There is no telling how this is going to play out," one league insider said. "It's such a cluster, right now, it's gross. It's all rumour and speculation and the players are entertained by it, they're causing it."
The media-savvy Bosh was unavailable for comment, but shared his thoughts via twitter and a prerecorded video on a website called whosay.com.
"This day has been in my mind for four years," Bosh said. "I didn't think it was going to be as big a deal as it is now … but as it got close, you could tell more and more people were getting more anxious."