Mario Chalmers is back with the Miami Heat, and determined to redeem himself after disappearing during the NBA Finals.
Chalmers had a terrible series and LeBron James ended up shouldering the bulk of the load. In the end that load caused LeBron to return to Cleveland with a new loaded roster.
Chalmers told Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report that the Heat relied to heavily upon James during the finals. In what could be described as a shot at the king, Chalmers said the other Heat players took to much of a back-seat to James.
“Yeah, that’s the worst thing, because you never know,” Chalmers said. “Everybody in my ear, talking about ‘We need you, we need you to do this, we need you to do that.’ And then when it comes to the game, I didn’t feel involved. Like, you all talk about how y’all need me, but y’all didn’t put me in position to do anything. In previous years, if I was in that position, I would make sure I would go get the ball, I would put myself in position to score. I felt like this year, we all just took too much of a back seat in the Finals.”
“I didn’t think I’d be back,” Chalmers said. “I didn’t think that at all. I didn’t even think the Heat would want me back, to be honest. That’s how I felt like my playoff performance was, that they didn’t want me back, they wanted to go another direction. So that was in my mind, too, but I was, like, if it happens, it happens.”
Chalmers may actually benefit from not having James around anymore. Chalmers can’t replicate LeBron’s output on the court, but he can become a veteran leader the Heat need.