No matter how this reunion with Mario Chalmers plays out, brief as it might be, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hinted there might yet be an encore to this encore.
“He told me something crazy this summer,” Spoelstra said of a conversation with Chalmers, 35, ahead of the Heat signing the veteran point guard to an emergency 10-day contract. “He said he wants to get into this profession. And I asked him if he was nuts, like, ‘Are you kidding?’ "
It has not been unusual for former Heat players to eventually rejoin the team’s coaching staff. Among those who have include Keith Askins and Juwan Howard, as well as current Heat assistants Malik Allen, Anthony Carter, Chris Quinn and Caron Butler.
“But if he does choose,” Spoelstra said of Chalmers, “eventually when he’s done playing — he still has, if he chooses to, he has years ahead of him because he’s in shape and his style of play would lend itself to play a couple, a few more years — but if he does decide that he wants to get into this madness, I’d love to help him and continue the relationship whether it’s with us or somebody else.”
Chalmers’ 10-day contract, signed under the league’s roster allowance as a replacement for players in coronavirus protocols, expires Sunday, but his eligibility would expire sooner once a corresponding Heat player returns to the active roster.
Chalmers, who helped the Heat win NBA championships in 2012 and ‘13 alongside Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, returned to the Heat after recently playing in the G League with the Grand Rapids Gold. Prior to his stint with Grand Rapids, he spent three seasons overseas, as well as time in the halfcourt Big3 circuit.
Chalmers had yet to play during this return engagement going into Wednesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.
In addition to the aforementioned Heat former players who returned to coach with the Heat, among former Heat players who have gone on to coach elsewhere in the NBA have been Tim Hardaway, Brian Shaw, Dan Majerle, Keyon Dooling, Quentin Richardson, James Posey, Terry Porter, Jamaal Magloire, Ed Pinckney, Amar’e Stoudemire, as well as Rod Strickland, Penny Hardaway, Eric Murdock, Craig Neal, Mike Miller, Rex Walters, Milt Wagner, Majerle, Porter and Howard on the collegiate level.
