Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Bosh is revealing just how close he came to losing his life earlier this year, opening up about a frightening health scare while urging San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama not to take his own recovery for granted.
Bosh told HoopsHype that he suffered another pulmonary embolism in January, saying, "I almost dropped dead, pretty much, and came back to life. I'm not joking." He said he spent a week in the hospital and now takes daily medication to manage the condition, adding that although he thought he was past the blood clot issues that ended his NBA career, "I am not."
Bosh, 42, first dealt with a blood clot in February 2015, when it traveled from his leg to his lung, sidelining him for the rest of that season. He returned to play the following year, but a second clot led Miami Heat doctors to determine his 13-year career, which included two NBA championships and 11 All-Star selections alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, was over.
Now managing his own health daily, Bosh is using his experience to caution Wembanyama, whose breakout 2024-25 season was interrupted by deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder. "Take your medicine," Bosh said, urging Wembanyama's team to "make sure that he's staying on top of his regimen... because it only takes one more time. It happened one more time for me, it happened twice, and I couldn't play anymore."
Wembanyama returned from his own clot to play 64 games last season, leading the Spurs to the Western Conference championship and an NBA Finals appearance as a Defensive Player of the Year finalist.
For Bosh, a man whose Texas upbringing was shaped by a father active in church youth ministry, the scare appears to have reinforced a familiar posture of gratitude - treating a second chance at life not as something to take lightly, but as one more reason to stay disciplined, present, and thankful for each day still given to him.
