LOS ANGELES - Toronto Raptors star Chris Bosh finally got his chance at a star-making turn at the NBA finals - as a correspondent on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Building on his YouTube-earned reputation as one of the NBA's quirkier stars, Bosh was on assignment in Boston to interview players ahead of Thurdsay's Game 1 Celtics win over the the Lakers.
The six-foot-11 all-star asked a variety of goofy questions, and the players were surprisingly game. Spanish Lakers centre Pau Gasol and Celtics big man Glen (Big Baby) Davis were both asked which "Sex and the City" character they relate to.
"I'd be the girl who can't stay in a relationship - Samantha," Davis said. "But I'm a little bit of an in-between. I'd also be the girl who was in love but likes to have fun, who gets her heart broken ... Carrie."
Bosh also grilled Lakers sharpshooter Sasha Vujacic on his rumoured relationship with hotel heiress Paris Hilton, and offered his outlook on the current Boston squad to centre Kendrick Perkins: "It's just like other Celtics teams, but it's just less white guys, right?"
Bosh gained some notoriety around the league for a self-produced YouTube clip in which the Dallas native plays a Texas used car salesman pleading for all-star votes. He followed it up last month with a clip where he plays a British journalist looking for an interview with Bosh.
He looked comfortable on camera here, holding his own in his exchange with Leno. Asked which team he'd bet on to win the NBA championship, he responded: "Just see what Charles Barkley's doing, who he's betting on, and just do the opposite."
And apparently inspired by the story of a Red Sox shirt being buried beneath the Yankees' new stadium, Bosh hid a Raptors jersey in the depths of Boston's TD Banknorth Garden.
"Let the curse begin," he said.
