Chris Bosh says he's 'lucky to be alive' after mystery health scare

NBA Hall of Famer Chris Bosh revealed on social media Wednesday that he dealt with a recent health scare, which has left him with a different outlook on life.

The 41-year-old Bosh didn't provide many details on the scare, only that it was "instant," that he woke up covered in blood while preparing for a date with his wife and that he has no memory of the incident. The area around his eyes was also noticeably darker.

Bosh's recollection:

"So I woke up covered in my own blood. It was crazy. It was fast. It was instant. There was no warning. I didn’t have any time to prepare for it. I was getting ready to go on a date with my wife and the next thing you know, I was, I was on the ground.

"I won’t get into specifics, but you can kind of see I’m still recovering [points to face]. I’m not gonna try to hide that one in case I look different, but it was a scary thing and it came fast ... I'm lucky I came back. It was just darkness, it wasn’t anything else. I went to the darkness, I came back. I have no recollection. I have no memory other than coming back here. So, don’t wait.”

While Bosh didn't specify what he dealt with, his history of blood clot issues is notable. His 2014-15 season ended due to a blood clot in his lungs and he never played a full season again, with the NBA ruling in 2017 he was unsafe to continue playing due to the condition. He kept trying to return to the league until his retirement in 2019.

Bosh did not say whether that clotting issue was a factor in this recent scare.

What he did say was he is no longer taking life for granted after coming so close to death:

"It made me really have a different outlook on life and how things go, what we do for ourselves, what we do for our family, how we live our lives. And no matter what it is, make sure you don’t wait. That’s the thing that I get from this. Don’t wait to take action, because it could come fast, it could come quick. I’m lucky to be alive and I feel great about that. And now I’m thinking about how I live my day to day life. That’s really it, but don’t wait.

"Don't wait to take action. You might be wanting to get a promotion, you might want to try out for the team, you might want to go on that vacation. It might be so many different things that people want to do, that we want to do that we never do. So that’s what I get from all this. Don’t wait for it. You might want to start a business, don’t wait. Just do it. You might hit the deck, I don’t know."

Bosh was an 11-time NBA All-Star in his career with the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat and won two titles with the Heat alongside LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. He remains the Raptors' all-time leader in rebounds and blocks and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.