What happens when one of the most hated players in the NBA gets traded to the city that arguably hates him most of all?
In the curious case of Mario Chalmers, who went from Miami to Memphis last month, the result has been a full-on rejuvenation that may very well recast the Grizzlies’ whole season.
In desperate need of a shooter and some leadership on the bench, the sliding Grizz dealt for Chalmers, one of their city’s greatest villains. His notoriously prickly persona has been a distraction at times, but this kind of energy is exactly what the Grizz need. And if being dropped by the Heat adds another chip to Chalmers’ already besieged shoulder—well, anyone who has followed his career knows that he plays his best when slighted.
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Chalmers was no longer a necessary piece at Miami, especially with his healthy veteran salary: Goran Dragic had essentially swallowed all the PG minutes, and the addition of Justise Winslow ensured that the Heat’s perimeter defense would remain secure. But if Chalmers has lost some of the quickness that helped the Heat win two titles, he’s still a great on-ball defender and crunch-time performer who can stretch defenses in a way that no one else on the Grizzlies roster can. Memphis needed shooting from beyond the arc, and if it had to come from the same person who dashed their hometown Tigers’ NCAA title hopes just seven years ago, such was the depth of the Grizzlies’ desperation.
The early returns on this gambit were, improbably, magic. In his third game as a Grizzly, Chalmers summoned fire, pouring in jumper after jumper (including six threes) in a single swooping bid to convert any Memphis hoops fans still pissed off at missing their One Shining Moment. He’s found the right role into which to channel his flagrantly aggressive style of play.
Chalmers has lived up to the big moment his entire career, ever since Bill Self brought the undersized point guard to Kansas from Alaska, a state that rarely pumps out top-tier college prospects. (One memorable video features a grade schooler asking Chalmers, “Are there other black people in Alaska?”) His high school team stomped the competition, and as a freshman, alongside Brandon Rush, he led an extremely young Kansas team to a Big 12 title in 2006. This was all a prelude to authoring the single greatest moment in Jayhawks athletic history:
Though his jersey has since been retired by the school, Chalmers could be frustrating to watch as a college player (and I attended KU at the height of its Super Mario period). “Mario had the biggest kahunas when it came to those type of plays,” Bill Self says in Jason King’s Beyond the Phog: Untold Stories from Kansas Basketball’s Most Dominant Decade. “He can’t remember any bad thing that happens. He only remembers the good stuff. So he could go 3-for-15 and leave the arena thinking, Man, they couldn’t guard me tonight.”
As a basketball fan growing up in a pre-Thunder plains state, my NBA fandom defaulted to following Jayhawks into the pros—a strategy that has seen highs (Paul Pierce, Andrew Wiggins, Kirk Hinrich) and lows (Julian Wright, Shady Arthur, Brandon Rush). Watching your favorite players get humbled at the higher level can be a grueling exercise. Chalmers needed three years in college to build up his stock with NBA scouts, but once in the league he found a role with a winning team. His ceaselessly irritating hands—he’s averaged a healthy two steals per game per 36 minutes in his NBA career—and presence in some big moments made for a net-positive stint in Miami.
He was perhaps better known as the focal point of LeBron James’ ire, however, and Chalmers’ penchant for super-brattiness has resulted in a somewhat chilly reputation, even with a few huge playoff games on his resume. He is the star of multiple canonical NBA GIFs, none of which reflect particularly well on him. And yet, the recent ‘Riossance is a quite welcome development to my League Pass lifestyle.
Seeing Chalmers yell his head off as he gets hotter and hotter is a something of a nostalgia trip, but it could also be a way forward for Memphis, who could use his shooting, defense, and, well, his “kahunas.” Team chemistry is arguably more important than it has ever been in recent memory: the league has become so deep that specific combinations of players can build gigantic competitive advantages. So far, things have been going well: Memphis is 8-3 since the trade. Chalmers, on average, is scoring double the points he had been in Miami; as a playmaker he creates space for the Grizzlies’ second unit, which includes the fast-rising JaMychal Green.
The modern NBA is fertile ground for reinvention, and Warriors notwithstanding, Chalmers to Memphis could be a legit difference-maker in a loaded Western conference.
