When people think of LeBron James at his best, his tenure with the Heat likely comes to mind. James appeared in four consecutive NBA Finals, won two NBA titles and won two MVP awards during his four seasons in Miami. He was widely considered the best player in the sport at the time, but according to one of his former teammates, that reverence didn’t include fear.
James’s former point guard with the Heat, Mario Chalmers, had some choice words when comparing his former teammate to Michael Jordan.
“Nobody fears Bron,” Chalmers told Playmaker HQ. “Nobody’s like, ‘Damn, I gotta go play against Bron tonight.’ Nobody said that. I don’t know why, because I seen people be scared when they actually line up to him, but they’re not scared thinking about that matchup.
“You hear anybody from that era talk about going against [Michael] Jordan, there’s a fear,” Chalmers continued. “So when you have people that fear a player then that tells you something different already. Jordan is just that guy.”
During the interview, Chalmers also addressed the infamous moment on the Heat bench when James had to be held back from Chalmers after the point guard said something that upset James. Chalmers confirmed that he told James to “stop playing like a b----.”
Chalmers hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2017–18 season with the Grizzlies, but he was the starting point guard for those Heat teams that went to four straight Finals. Then and now, it appears Chalmers isn’t afraid to give his honest take about James.
