Basketball superstar Lebron James is well-known for his time with the Miami Heat. The player’s first big move away from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the player’s first superteam united with Dwayne Wade and center Chris Bosh, and, of course, Bron’s first championship, James’ Heat days had it all, and it was a time to cherish for all fans and players.
Recently, former Miami Heat players Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller talked about their experiences and memories in the league with the King, and it was rather interesting.
Mario Chalmers reflects on losing to LeBron James
Those who know LeBron James know that Bron is a serial winner, an athlete who loves to cherish his victory regardless of what the competition is.
Mario Chalmers bore first-hand witness to LeBron’s victory antics. In a game of cards in which Mario was assured to win, LeBron miraculously pulled an incredible victory against Mario, costing the latter a grand sum of 45,000 USD. A gentleman’s word: Mario sent the victory earnings to James a few days after the incident.
Soon after James got the money, he decided to buy a brand new truck. This is where Bron’s antics begin. Chalmers lived within walking distance of the Miami Heat facility and often turned up to workouts by walk. This one day, the ‘Chosen One’, in his brand new truck, pulled up beside Chalmers and mockingly asked if the player wanted a ride—the perfect example of rubbing salt in the wounds.
This is how Mario recollected the incident to his former teammates, Haslem and Miller. He said, “So listen, aye here go the story killer, Everybody knows, but we were playing guts, three-card poker, right? So it was a ghost, I had a pair of nines going around — no I had a pair of eights — going around. … I’m the first one, I’m in. Everybody gets out — everybody gets out. I got a pair of nines. I’m guaranteed to win, a pair of eights I mean, I’m guaranteed to win.
“Bron flip over the first card, it’s a nine. Okay, I’m like, ‘Alright, cool.’ Second card, a jack, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah this ain’t nothing.’ Another card, a nine. A pair of nines beat a pair of eights for $45,000. But I paid him — I paid him two days later. He bought the truck — he bought the f——- truck.\
“No listen, I wanted to kill shawty. I wanted to blow that f——- truck up. He bought the truck, pulled up to practice — ’cause you know I used to live across the street, so sometimes I’d just walk to practice or I’d run or do some goofy s— — this n—- pulled up and was like, ‘Yo, you want a ride?’ I’m like, ‘Shawty, if you don’t get the f— away from me, I’ll blow you and this truck up right now,’ like I was so f—— pissed.”
In his time, Mario was one of the best Heat’s role players, with a remarkable skill at knocking shots down from deep, and played a key role in the Miami Heat winning back-to-back titles alongside the Heatles’ trio of LeBron James, Wade and Bosh.
Mario Chalmers talks on LeBron James controversy
Previously, Mario Chalmers made a bold statement that nobody in the league feared LeBron James as a player, which was a quality that Michael Jordan instilled in his opponents, according to Mario Chalmers.
Speaking to Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, former teammates of Mario at the Heat, Mario had the opportunity to provide context and clear any misunderstandings, which he certainly did. Explaining his words, Mario said, “When I said it right. I was basically saying that the players that we went against didn’t fear, LeBron. The Danny Grangers, the Luol Dengs, the Jimmy Butlers, the people that we were seeing in the playoffs, they didn’t fear Bron because the media was killing him the year he came to Miami.”
He continued, “So during the workouts, I hear conversations, I hear him saying, ‘People don’t think I could do this. Okay, let me work on this.’ … So when we come to that next year and everybody’s like, make Bron shoot, make bro do this, you can’t make Bron do nothing. … So now he’s attacking differently. So your mindset is going against that. It’s like, oh, I know what he can’t do because the media has been saying X, Y, Z, but you haven’t been in the gym seeing what he’s working on. Now that he’s going and he’s got 24 [points] with 20 in the paint, you like, damn, what does he do now? Now that fear comes as like, I don’t know how to stop. I don’t know what to do now. That’s what I was basically saying.”
Mario also emphasized that he did not have any beef with Bron and only had the utmost respect for the superstar, thanking him for the titles that they won together. In the same show, Chalmers also addressed calling LeBron James a “b—h” to fire him up.
There is no doubt that LeBron James’ Heat days were a true spectacle for basketball fans, but what do you think? Make sure to let us know in the comments section.
