Chris Bosh had his whole world turned upside down for a few brief moments this past Friday. While out of the country on vacation he found out Lebron decided to leave the Miami Heat, which for a moment had Bosh thinking he was heading to the Houston Rockets. Then after the shock of what happened he gathered his thoughts and decided Miami was still the place for him. Hit the jump.

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Bosh has agreed to a five year/$118 million dollar contract to stay with Miami, but it wasn’t without hesitation. When he finally puts pen to paper, the Heat locker room will essentially become his — and in an interview with The Associated Press, Bosh said that while it’s a shock to realize James is no longer with Miami after four seasons, he’s ready to have that voice.

“We’ve built a life in South Florida and we’re comfortable,” Bosh said Sunday. “So I had to do what’s best now for myself and my family.”

“I can’t lie to you: I’m excited. I’m excited for the challenge,” Bosh said during a break from NBA Africa duties. “I want to step up to the challenge. I feel this is a chance to prove to myself and others that I can still do this.

“I want to see if I can do what’s necessary to go in there and win every night. That’s the challenge of being a leader. It excites me. It’s been a long time and I feel like I’m a much better player and a leader now, so it’ll be fun.”

“I’d be lying if I sat here and said Houston wasn’t enticing,” Bosh said. “You look at their roster and you can kind of see why it makes sense for them to be interested in me, with the chance they have to be successful. They’re going to be a good team regardless next year. It just seemed like I would be that final piece that they needed. It was a hard choice to turn down.”

Bosh insists the Heat will be good next season. How good, that will largely be up to him.

“We have so much chemistry,” Bosh said. “We’ll just be continuing without LeBron. It’s starting a different chapter. It’s exciting. I think it should be motivation for everybody to step up to the plate. We’re fortunate enough to have some of the same guys. We should be able to say, `Hey, we can come out here and compete no matter what happens.”