It was early in his Toronto tenure that Sam Mitchell convened a summit, eager to find out more about the Raptors’ most promising player, to learn how a young coach and a young player might grow together.
The first-year coach, just two years removed from his own playing career, summoned trusty lieutenant Jim Todd to sit with Chris Bosh and Bosh’s mom, Freda, to break bread and talk things through.
“I remember asking Chris Bosh a series of questions, and the answers he gave me all came back to the fact that he wanted to be great, he wanted to be a Hall of Famer, he wanted to win championships,” Mitchell recalls nearly 17 years later.