http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/sports/basketball/chris-bosh-miami-heat-physical-blood-clots.html 2016-09-23 21:02:24 Miami Heat Say Chris Bosh Has Failed His Physical Bosh has been sidelined by blood clots at the All-Star break the past two seasons, but he said last week that he was ready to play. === MIAMI — Chris Bosh failed his physical and was not cleared to participate in the The Heat made the announcement Friday. Bosh, an 11-time All-Star, recently went through a series of medical tests, and the results were not enough to convince Miami that he was able to play — at least, not yet. “The Miami Heat and Chris Bosh, in consultation with team doctors and other physicians, have been working together for many months with the mutual goal of having Chris return to the court as soon as possible,” the team said in a statement. “Chris has now taken his preseason physical. The Miami Heat regret that it remains unable to clear Chris to return to basketball activities, and there is no timetable for his return.” The team also said that under N.B.A. rules that they could not comment further, citing a clause “which precludes a team from releasing certain medical information without a player’s consent.” The team plans to hold its media day in Miami on Monday and to start training camp in the Bahamas on Tuesday. It was unclear if Bosh would be present. Bosh’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bosh has done a number of interviews with “I’m ready to play,” Bosh said last week. Bosh is the last member of the Heat’s “Big Three,” which also comprised James and Dwyane, still with the Heat, and he may be headed for a battle that could require league intervention. Wade, now with the Chicago Bulls, said he supported Bosh — but has reservations. “I wouldn’t be a friend if I didn’t express to him my concerns,” Wade said. “To me, the biggest thing is Chris has five kids and a wife and a family that depends on him being there. To me, that’s always most important. I told him, ‘Make sure you focus on that first.’” Bosh is owed nearly $76 million for the final three seasons of his contract. The money is guaranteed, but there are mechanisms in the league’s collective bargaining agreement that would allow Miami to remove Bosh’s salary from its cap number sometime next year if he cannot continue to play. In a podcast last week and again on Wednesday in the first installment of a documentary series about his health problems and recovery, Bosh expressed frustration with the team’s doctors. In the podcast, he suggested that team doctors work for the Heat and not the players; on the video, he said he was told by doctors that his career was most likely over after the latest bout of clots in February. There are several unanswered questions about Bosh’s situation, which became more complex this week when he revealed that multiple clots were found in February — and that a CT scan was utilized in finding them. CT scans are often used when trying to determine if clots have traveled to the upper body. It is unclear how many clots there were, or where they were found. Bosh did confirm that a clot was found this year in one of his calves. It also was unclear if Bosh was taking blood thinners. Bosh said last week that he was following a plan similar to the one used by the N.H.L. player Tomas Fleischmann, who has played for the last several seasons while on blood thinners — something athletes in contact sports are typically told is risky. Bosh has not said if he is still on blood thinners and if he plans to play while taking them. Bosh’s first bout with a clot was in February 2015, when a clot that was believed to have formed in one of his legs traveled to a lung and caused problems so severe that he needed to be hospitalized for several days. He recovered and was averaging 19.1 points last season when the second bout with clots began in February — though the subsequent problems were far less serious than those in 2015.