<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If Rob Babcock was identified as the cause of the Toronto Raptors' ills yesterday, there's little doubt that third-year forward Chris Bosh is considered the cure. Sources close to the club and throughout the National Basketball Association were quick to make the connection between Babcock's firing and the necessity of signing Bosh to a long-term contract in the summer. The equation isn't too complicated: Bosh and coach Sam Mitchell have established a strong player-coach bond over the past season and a half, while Mitchell and Babcock have been at loggerheads. Given the importance of re-signing Bosh, letting Mitchell go in favour of Babcock would seem to be too big a risk. "There's a lot more general managers out there than there are 6-foot-11 all-star forwards," was how one NBA executive put it. While no one will go so far as to say that Mitchell was using his relationship with Bosh to actively win a power play with Babcock, the dynamics at work were plain. "Do I think that Chris could have been used as leverage to get someone out?" a source close to the Raptors said. "It might be unfair, but this is a multimillion-dollar business. "Based what I've seen, there was a power struggle between Sam and Rob, and Sam won it, absolutely." The irony is that even as the wheels were in motion to fire Babcock, Bosh has been intimating that he's open to signing a six-year extension in August, the first opportunity under NBA rules. If not, Bosh can become a restricted free agent after the 2006-07 season and will be doggedly pursued by the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers -- Lakers coach Phil Jackson was fined $25,000 (U.S.) for tampering last month for saying as much -- and the Dallas Mavericks, who would love to have the Dallas native in uniform. He would have to wait until after the 2007-08 season to be an unrestricted free agent, but Bosh sounded yesterday like someone who didn't want to wait that long to secure his future. "I've been thinking about [signing an extension]," he said in an interview before the announcement that Babcock was fired. "That would definitely make things less complicated. I can't tell the future, anything can happen between now and then, [but] I'm just content with staying here. I hope everything works out." Just this week Bosh made his feelings known to the national media in the United States, telling Sports Illustrated -- ironically, as it turns out -- that Babcock was "piecing the team together. We like one another, we get along, everybody works hard and everybody's professional." Bosh also sounded yesterday like a player ready and willing to bear the load of being a rebuilding franchise's cornerstone. "I like the idea of getting the chance or challenge to [lift a team up]," he said. "You have to give it a chance. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure both parties would come to a mutual agreement, but you have stick with something sometimes. They just have to bring in guys to help you that feel the same way."</div> Source
