Mario Chalmers to sign 10-day contract to return to Heat as COVID-19 replacement
Mario Chalmers will once again be a member of the Miami Heat.
Chalmers, who won two NBA championships as the Heat’s starting point guard in 2012 and 2013, is expected to sign a 10-day contract to return to the Heat as a COVID-19 replacement.
The plan is for Chalmers, 35, to sign and join the Heat in Houston in time for Friday’s game against the Rockets.
Chalmers, who spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NBA career with the Heat, last played in an NBA game on April 11, 2018 as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. He tore his right Achilles tendon in March 2016 and it derailed his NBA career, as he needed four additional surgeries because of issues stemming from the injury.
Chalmers has been trying to work his way back into the NBA ever since, as he has played in Italy, Greece, Puerto Rico and even in the halfcourt three-on-three Big3 basketball league.
As the Heat deals with COVID-19 and injury issues, it turned to Chalmers to help add depth to its depleted roster.
Chalmers will be the sixth COVID-19 replacement who the Heat has signed in recent days, joining forward Zylan Cheatham, guard Kyle Guy, forward Haywood Highsmith, forward/center Aric Holman and guard Nik Stauskas. Cheatham, Guy, Highsmith and Holman have already signed their deals with Miami.
The Heat is working to have the minimum of eight available players required by the NBA to play Friday’s game in Houston after Wednesday’s game against the Spurs in San Antonio was postponed because Miami did not have enough players to proceed with the game.
The Heat has eight players currently in the NBA’s health and safety protocols: Cheatham, Marcus Garrett, Udonis Haslem, Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, P.J. Tucker and Gabe Vincent.
In addition, the Heat has ruled out five players because of injuries: Bam Adebayo (thumb surgery), Dewayne Dedmon (knee sprain), Markieff Morris (whiplash), KZ Okpala (wrist sprain) and Victor Oladipo (knee injury recovery).
Chalmers, who was acquired by the Heat in the second round of the 2008 draft, averaged 8.8 points, 3.8 assists and 1.5 steals in 525 regular-season games (383 starts) with Miami. He won two championships as a member of the Heat’s Big 3 teams, and ranks among Miami’s all-time leaders in games played (fourth), minutes played (sixth), assists (fourth) and steals (second).
“That’s always going to be my team,” Chalmers said to the Miami Herald of the Heat in 2019. “They accepted me, they welcomed me in and I got my NBA start there. So that’s always going to be a team I’m going to root for and check in on.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 5:21 PM.
