Things usually went right for the Miami Heat during LeBron James' four-year tenure in South Beach, but when they didn't, Mario Chalmers was often the target of James' scorn. Now that James has returned to Cleveland, Chalmers is trying to forget what it was like to be the focus of the four-time MVP's wrath, according to Chris Haynes of The Plain Dealer:
Mario Chalmers pretends to forget LeBron James yelling at him
James yelled at Chalmers quite often in Miami, and the Heat point guard is trying to put that behind him.
Kevin C. Cox
“I don’t even remember, bro,” he said. “Last year is in the past. This is a new year. New me. I’m not thinking about it.”
Kyrie Irving is James' new point guard, and Chalmers gave a little warning to Irving about what it's like to play with James:
“LeBron is a dominant player so if he feels like something is not going his way, he’s going to say something about it,” Chalmers told Northeast Ohio Media Group. “For Kyrie, he’s going to have to adjust to that and LeBron is going to have to adjust to Kyrie. It’s going to be a different factor for Kyrie.”
Irving is an All-Star and a much better player than Chalmers, so perhaps James won’t feel the need to go after him as much. However, Irving does have his own shortcomings, so he likely won’t completely avoid James’ scoldings.
LeBron's Response
This is the second day in a row one of James' former teammates in Miami has spoken out about how it was sometimes tough to play with him. Chris Bosh said Thursday that Kevin Love will face some major challenges when working to fit in with James, with Bosh even saying his own transition was "extremely difficult and extremely frustrating."
There’s truth in what Chalmers and Bosh have said, but one has to wonder if there’s some bitterness that James bolted Miami. Even with all the scolding and frustration, James did bring the Heat to four consecutive NBA Finals and two consecutive championships. Irving and Love will have to deal with a transition period, but once the team finds its groove, there shouldn’t be much to complain about.
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