Nostalgia sequence to be expected this weekend in Florida, where two former Heat players, Mario Chalmers And Michael Beasley will meet this Sunday at the Kaseya Center to take part in the BIG3 stage in Miami, with twelve teams and six games on the program.
Both drafted in 2008, the two grew up under the colors of the Heat from 2008 to 2010 before the constitution of the “Three Amigos” with the Wade-James-Bosh trio. They then evolved together again in 2013/14 and then at the end of the following season, according to the back and forth of Michael Beasley.
Good memories… and less good ones
As Mario Chalmers slipped, the two players experienced everything in Miami together, between their benchmarking in the NBA from 2008 to 2010, the splendor of an NBA final in 2014, and again the decline after the departure of LeBron James.
Almost ten years later, the two players with diametrically opposed characters are preparing to experience this homecoming in a very different way. For Mario Chalmers, it will be an opportunity to have a good time, to find familiar faces and to taste the atmosphere of a locker room again.
“It’s just fun”, assured the 37-year-old point guard. “Fun to find the guys, play basketball, keep in shape and be in a locker room again. When you stop playing, you miss that camaraderie. We will find some of these sensations, with a lot of good players, and everyone gets on well.
While Mario Chalmers has kept good relations with the franchise, Michael Beasley does not arrive with the same relaxation, he who has sometimes suffered from the treatment inflicted by the Heat during his successive visits.
“I’m just tired of waiting for news from the NBA. I want to play basketball”dropped the 34-year-old winger, who still hoped to return to the league, before discussing his return. “I have mixed feelings. I like the Heat, I like a lot of people in the organization. But I had to become aware of these feelings. When I was a player, I didn’t like them at all. I didn’t like what was going on, I didn’t like the fact that I didn’t have an opportunity, that it was said that my defense was the reason, or that I never played more than 20 minutes, which means that I always watched more than half of the game from the bench. But now I’m older and out of a lot of that stuff. I had to grow up with those feelings, but I like what the team is doing right now. I wish they had won one last year”.
Four other former Heat invited
In terms of automatisms, the two players should easily find each other, Mario Chalmers having confided that he had become accustomed to training with Michael Beasley during the off-season for almost ten years.
“It will be a bit the same, except that we will not play 5-on-5 on any court. That will probably be the biggest difference”he added.
The two players will team up with Brandon Rush, Hollis Thompson, Tony Allen and Julian Wright as part of the “3’s Company” team. Alongside them, other well-known faces of the Heat will also be present, between Rashard Lewis, Gerald Green and Joe Johnson for the field part, as well as Gary Payton as coach.
