It’s always fun to imagine how much different things could have turned out if the ball had bounced differently on a specific play. Had J.R. Smith not been there to bother Andre Iguodala‘s layup attempt in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, would LeBron James have caught up with him to execute that memorable block?
And had the Golden State Warriors won that game and their second straight title, would Kevin Durant have gone there to create an unstoppable squad?
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Although thinking about these is ultimately futile, they’re still fun exercises in how NBA history would have unfolded differently with a few alterations and Mario Chalmers recently spoke to Bleacher Report on a similar topic. He revealed that he didn’t want the Miami Heat to go to LeBron James in the waning moments of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals.
Down three to the San Antonio Spurs, in Chalmers’ mind, the right call would have been to spring Ray Allen — widely considered one of the greatest shooters of all time— open and give him a good look at the basket.
Superstars are superstars
Down three after Kawhi Leonard split his charities, Chalmers brought the ball up and passed it to James, who curled off a solid screen by Chris Bosh, and shot a triple. However, the 3-pointer missed, but fortunately for the Heat, Bosh reached as high up as he could to grab the offensive rebound and locate a backpedaling Allen in the corner.
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The rest, as they say, was history.
Over a decade after the play, Chalmers shared that he didn’t agree with the play that they ran at the time.
“I’m not going to lie, I was upset when Spo drew this up because I felt like we should be running it for Ray instead of Bron,” he disclosed. “But, you know, superstars are superstars. You give them a chance to be superstars in those moments.”
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Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra trusted his gut and went with the hot hand. After all, LeBron had already scored 16 in the fourth, including a trey that pulled the Heat to within two with only 20.1 ticks left on the clock.
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“So, he got a good look. Got a great look, actually and just missed it,” Chalmers stated.
Ray was prepared
Obviously, everything worked out well for the Heat, thanks to Allen, who Chalmers said tried all types of wacky shots in practice. To the casual observer, those seemed like wild shots that Allen would never be able to take during an actual game. However, the former UConn ace was preparing himself for odd situations.
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“Ray would be in practice every day backpedaling to the corner shooting threes. So it was kind of like one of them things. I would ask him, ‘Why do you do that? Why do you practice shooting the way you do?'” Chalmers recalled.
“He always told me, ‘You never know what type of footwork you’re going to need in any type of moment.’ I’ve seen him practice that shot so many times that he gets behind that three without even looking at it,” he continued. “So I knew it was a good shot.”
The Heat went on to win Game 6 in overtime, 103-100. They also prevailed in Game 7, 95-88, to capture their second straight title. However, one has to wonder how things would have played out had Chalmers done things his way.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.