Chris Bosh Twitter

The question hung there in cyberspace, Sphinx-like. Well, maybe not Sphinx-like; that would imply some sort of inscrutability, some sort of mystery. This seemed a little more transparent, a little more plain.

"Been wanting to ask. Where should I go next season and why?" Chris Bosh - or one of Bosh's Twitter ghostwriters - wrote on his Twitter account, which has almost 98,000 followers.

About an hour later, Bosh tweeted again. "Ok... Let me rephrase the question. Should I stay or should I go?"

Let's assume this was actually the Toronto Raptors all-star forward, or someone typing under his supervision. Now, perhaps Chris Bosh has decided to place the biggest decision of his 26-year-old life in the hands of approximately 98,000 faceless souls. They certainly responded, with a lasting blizzard of suggestions. Chicago! Houston! Miami! New York! Chris Bosh, we love you! Come play for us! Pleaaase!

And of course, Toronto. Stay, they implored. Don't leave us, they keened. Please, Chris, you're the best player the franchise ever had.

I like Chris Bosh. I've dealt with him for seven years, since he was a rookie. In that time, he has tried to be a great player, and a responsible role model, for the most part. He has rarely hit the wrong notes, other than the occasional complaint about the team being deservedly booed, or some frustration-driven criticism of teammates late last year, which was also deserved.

He has been mature, responsible, earnest, and dedicated to the task. No, he couldn't convince a parade of ill-fitting teammates to play this thing they call defence, or to rebound as if it mattered, or to create contact the way he does. No, he has not been able to lift his perpetually flawed and limited teammates past the first round of the playoffs. No, he's not LeBron, or Dwyane Wade, or Kobe. Few are.

But by and large, Chris Bosh has, unlike certain others of this franchise's franchise players, been someone the city could be  reasonably proud of.

This, however, was not his finest moment. Maybe he thought it would be playful; maybe he was just bored on a Friday night, waiting for the Lakers-Thunder game to start. Maybe he genuinely doesn't know what to do - which seems likely - and decided to do a little dance with the masses.

But that's what this was - a cry for attention, for affection, for an adrenaline shot to the ego. Worse, it was a disingenuous cry; it was the kind of fan-baiting that Bosh was above this season, as he conducted himself with dignity and respect. Unlike, say, LeBron James, who took a peculiar sort of delight in publicly flirting with the idea of playing in New York, among other places. LeBron appears likely to stay in Cleveland, in which case all of that will be forgotten, and forgiven.

Bosh, on the other hand, seems destined to leave. At his season-closing news conference, he put a premium on contending, and on winning. Toronto has won 11 playoff games in 15 years of existence.

"Yeah, that's what it comes down at the end of the day," Bosh said that day. "I just want to win basketball games. I want to play in the post-season. I want to advance. I've been playing seven years. It's time to start thinking about stuff like that for me, because I don't know how many years I have left.

"I have to start thinking like that. I know I'm still a young player, but I remember when I got drafted guys were 25, 26, and now they're on their last deals. I want to win basketball games."

Chris Bosh will not make the biggest decision of his 26-year-old life based on this truncated form of direct democracy. He will make his decision based on whether he insists on being a team's No. 1 option; he will make his decision based on how badly he wants to win; he will make this decision based on geography (a big city, bank on it), ownership (pay the luxury tax, or else), and coaching. He'll decide based on what he wants, rather than what you want.

Anything else would be idiocy, which is what makes this a hollow call for the spotlight. And in general, Chris Bosh is a pretty smart guy.

But this wasn't smart. Making a DVD about getting a tattoo may have been pretty self-indulgent, but it didn't toy with the emotions of the people who cheer for him. This was a fine way to disrespect the city that has loved him for his entire NBA career, and in a small way, the franchise that has catered to all but one of his whims.

True, that whim involved playing for a team that actually cared to win, and as LeBron James said the other day, "with Bosh being out for the rest of the season, and all those injuries, it just didn't seem like they wanted to make the playoffs at the end of the season. Especially when you see the game between Chicago and Toronto in Toronto, you can tell they didn't really want to make the playoffs."

And yeah, maybe they didn't. Look, Chris Bosh is well within his rights to explore free agency, and to leave. This city shouldn't boo him upon his return, should he decide to go elsewhere; after all, he is still committed to working with the Raptors on a sign-and-trade. He gave what he had, despite some speculation about the second half of this past season, and if he wants to go somewhere else and win, that's fine. Good luck to him.

But this is a sour way to begin the parting, if that's where it's going. Sure, they're just a few words, spoken aloud to the world. But they reveal a needy man, a man who craved attention once the lights on his season went out. It's not terribly appealing, frankly. Chris Bosh is better than that. Or should be, anyway.