Although the Miami Heat had little problem roughing up their opposition during the regular season, things became much more difficult when they opposed the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013-14 NBA Finals.
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Most would simply credit the Spurs for being the better team, but Miami Heat point guard Mario Chalmers isn’t so sure. He of course isn’t going to take a shot at the Spurs, but Chalmers does believe he (and some of his teammates) were forced to take a ‘back seat’ during the series.
“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.”
Who exactly ‘everybody’ is seemed to be the big question. Was it the Miami Heat coaching staff? Was it LeBron James? Maybe Dwyane Wade and/or Chris Bosh?
Chalmers is still a member of the organization so it wouldn’t be the smartest move to take a shot at Wade, Bosh or the staff. Given that, you have to wonder who exactly Mario Chalmers is talking about. Was it a swipe at LeBron James? Or was Chalmers simply speaking in general terms?