"For his first seven years in the NBA, Heat forward Chris Bosh toiled in relative anonymity in Toronto, where hockey is king.

So none of the Heat's "Three Kings" had to make a bigger adjustment than Bosh when it came to handling the spotlight as well as the basketball.

It was no surprise that seconds after the Heat were eliminated by the Mavericks in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, it was the introspective, book-reading giant who seemingly took defeat the hardest. TV cameras caught Bosh collapsed and sobbing on the corridor floor en route to the locker room.

"I haven't experienced that pain in a very long time,'' Bosh said after his season exit interview at AmericanAirlines Arena on Tuesday afternoon. "Basketball hasn't given me that for a while. To be so close and to work so hard and get to that point, just to come up short, it kind of just got to me.

"I gave it everything I had. Sometimes when you give it everything you have emotionally — I'm not an emotional guy — it just took over. I really just couldn't help it, but I got it out of me and I feel a lot better for it, and I can move on.''

Fans and teammates would disagree with Bosh not being emotional, especially after watching a full season of his open-mouthed primal screams after a game-changing play."