On a night when the coronation of high school phenom LeBron James became official, the Toronto Raptors ignored the temptation of a trade and selected wispy forward Chris Bosh with the fourth pick of the National Basketball Association draft.

The 6-foot-10 Bosh is listed at 210 pounds. He was an early entry candidate for the draft after one season at Georgia Tech. The 19-year-old Bosh started all 31 games and led the Yellow Jackets in scoring (15.6 points a game), rebounding (9.0), blocked shots (2.2) and shooting (56 per cent).

In the days leading up to last night's draft, which was held in New York at the Theater in Madison Square Garden, the Raptors entertained a number of trade offers from other teams interested in the pick.

But what was being offered in return didn't grab Glen Grunwald, Toronto's senior vice-president and general manager. Last year, Toronto stumbled to a 24-58 record, third worst overall in the NBA.

"I definitely considered trading this pick because I thought we could move back a few spots and still accomplish a lot of the same things," Grunwald said last night. "I thought there were a few players in the draft who could really help us. And I thought that maybe we could add another piece to our team.

"But I wasn't really interested in trading back into the late lottery [picks] or out of the lottery."