Chris Bosh believes he will play in the NBA again after sitting out the entire 16-17 season.

Bosh experienced blood clots near the All-Star break in 2015 and 2016. The Miami Heat were unable to clear Bosh before the start of the 16-17 season.

"At heart," Bosh said, "I'm still an athlete. That is not how I want it to end."

Bosh said he understood the desire of the Miami Heat for clarity with their salary-cap position going forward. Pat Riley said prior to this past season that the Heat no longer were working toward Bosh's return.

"Yeah, I understand what they have to do as a team," Bosh, 33, said. "It is a business. I know we -- as athletes and owners and people involved with the NBA -- never want to say it's a business, and things like that. It's is a business. And hurt does come in with that. But as president of the Miami Heat, I understand what he has to do."

Bosh declined to get into specifics about the state of his health.

"It's complicated," he said. "It's very, very complicated and that's why I haven't been able to play this year."

Bosh said the time away from the NBA has allowed him to take stock.

"It's been a very interesting time for me," he said, "only because I'm used to playing basketball. I'm used to practicing. I'm used to the schedule. That's kind of what I was born to do. That's what I've been doing my whole life. And over the last year, I have not been able to kind of fall back on that. So it's forced me to grow in a lot of different ways."

Bosh hedged when he was asked what he might do next.

"I don't know," he said. "And that's exciting. It's always this kind of pressure as an athlete, people [asking], 'What are you going to do? And you should do this? Or you should do that?' I think it's OK to say, 'I don't know what I want to do.' I have a lot of things on my mind."