Big 3 or Big 2 in Miami debate?

This past week the Miami Heat organization celebrated their first championship win in the new "Big 3" era. And for the first time in the past year all of the harsh criticism of the Miami Heat had to take a backseat (for the moment atleast). And as the Lebron is only good for the three quarters jokes begin to die down and we take the overwhelmingly high pressure off of the shoulders of the Miami Heat organization we have a chance to now reflect on and answer the question that has been asked since the inception of the "Miami Big 3": How important is Chris Bosh to the success of the Heat anyway?

When the world was first exposed to the free agency of 2010 in the NBA there were many exciting developments that occured. Amare to the Knicks, the possible departure of D-Wade from the Miami Heat, of course the Lebron Decision fiasco, and the opportunites for Chris Bosh. Out of all those possibilities and more, the development of the pre-throned Big 3 became the most compelling storyline of the last two years. While most of the criticism, mostly harsh, remained directed at the leagues biggest star Lebron James, many could not help but recognize the struggles and sometimes dismal performances by Chris Bosh. Throughout Miami's 2010 and 2011 campaign many questions were posed about the legacy of Lebron and chemistry of this collective group, but many critics including myself begin to ask how good is Chris Bosh anyway? In fact this question became one of the spotlight topics of the Big 3 especially during the regular season of 2011-2012 in many sports radio circles, shows, and ESPN debate television broadcasts. One anchor on the show "First Take" shown daily on ESPN has repeatedly referred to Chris Bosh as Bosh Spice. These criticisms escalated as the Miami Heat found themselves tested against a young and ambitious Indiana Pacers team. With the Pacers taking a 2 to 1 advantage early in the playoffs many questioned the dominance of the Miami Heat and furthermore speculated the result of an early playoff exit for this Miami squad. One of the suggestions were to trade Chris Bosh for a stronger center or a few strong dominant inside the paint players. These conversations quickly changed when Chris Bosh suffered an injury and left the Heat to play without one of their high profiled player. This was the opportunity that all the critics and Bosh haters waited for. Many sports fans, myself included, expected the Miami Heat to finally flourish in their play without the baggage of Chris Bosh on the floor. Finally, Lebron and D-Wade could rule the court without their sometimes non respondent center/power forward on the floor killing the chemistry. And the unexpected occured. The Miami Heat struggled without Chris Bosh. People are quick to forget that Chris Bosh used to be the man in Toronto. The 7-time All Star player was much needed in the playoffs for the Miami Heat. And when he arrived in the Boston Celtics series, he not only came back and played well, but he played a pivotal role in the Heat's championship run. Indeed, Bosh has struggled as a player for the Heat these past two seasons, and in many cases was considered the third wheel in the Big 3 conversation, but in these 2012 NBA Finals Chris Bosh finally showed his true colors. The man that was once called CB4 showed his superstar ability and helped propel Miami to another championship. Now will people stop criticizing Miami, probably not. But if this playoffs has shown us anything, we can expect some more big things from the Miami Heat.