Miami Heat: We don’t talk about how great unsung heroes from LeBron era were

The LeBron James era of the Miami Heat franchise has some unsung heroes and we don’t talk about that supporting cast nearly enough

I want to sing the praises of some Miami Heat legends that I believe are unsung.

On Wednesday morning I was up early enough to scroll through live TV. With the Election is coming up, hard news didn’t seem like the best way to start the day. The Dodgers won the World Series the night before and frankly, I didn’t want to hear about that either.

When live TV fails me, I turn to Seinfeld reruns or NBATV. Wednesday morning, it was NBATV.

They were replaying the 2013 NBA Finals — Game 6. Yeah, that game, the one with the yellow rope and then Chris Bosh and Ray Allen connecting for an offensive rebound/kick-out for a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game.

BANG!

And look, I knew this was coming.

In a rewatch of Game 6 from 2013, you can tend to skip over a lot of the details because the climax is unlike anything that has happened in the Finals in recent memory. And you’re just waiting for it, like the bang after a distant lightning strike in a storm.

But I did watch it, and I completely forgot something — Mario Chalmers had 10 points in the first few minutes of the game.

The Miami Heat Big 3 era was a special time and a spectacle to behold from top to bottom

This game that was so firmly in my mind as LeBron James, Bosh, and Allen, that I had completely forgotten the sheer brilliance of Mario Chalmers that allowed Miami to get within three points in the first place.

And how silly was that, really? Chalmers scored above 10 points several times that postseason and in that game, he was electric. He scored 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, and dished two assists while playing over 42 minutes in Game 6. He was a +13, sinking 80 percent of his attempted 3-pointers.

I also thought of some of the other unsung heroes. When’s the last time we’ve talked at-length about Shane Battier, who was a strong player on both ends for the Heat in the 2010s?

How about Chris Andersen (Birdman, of course), who brought a defensive intensity off the bench that pushed the Heat to a new level? He brought hustle plays, too, like this one:

Norris Cole was in just his second NBA season but at times looked like a seasoned vet in the postseason. Though he didn’t play in the final two games in 2013, he was a reliable backup off the bench that helped Miami get there.

And last but certainly not least, Mike Miller. The man shot 44.4 percent beyond the arc in the 2013 postseason and though he only averaged a few points per game, he scored 8 points in that Game 6 to help push the series to a Game 7.

LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen rightly come to mind when we think about the Heatles era. Without them, Miami wouldn’t have even been close to competing in those years. But too quickly, we think of those players and move on.

Miami wasn’t built on just its stars. There was excellence all throughout the team from the starters down to the fringe playoff rotation players. That’s how the Heat have won three titles.

This is a reminder to myself and everyone else to not forget about them. Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Shane Battier, Birdman, and Mike Miller were a part of some of this team’s greatest games. The league might not bring them up enough, but Heat fans can and certainly should.