Former Miami Heat point guard Mario Chalmers has always been known as a super confident person. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he accepted a challenge from 47-year-old rapper Cam’ron, who recently said that he could beat Chalmers one on one.
Run it https://t.co/z3Ti4REKwx
— Mario Chalmers (@mchalmers15) March 30, 2023
Chalmers is a two-time NBA champ, so most people would probably choose him if the two were to go head to head. However, it should be noted that the rapper had a decent basketball career of his own, allegeldy being recruited by schools like Georgetown University and Syracuse University.
The rapper, whose real names is Cameron Giles, received an offer to play for Navarrio College in Texas, but he apparently tore his hamstring at the start of his collegiate career and later got kicked out of school after a weapons arrest.
“When I got back from school, and [Ma$e] had signed on with Bad Boy, I was like, I gotta get paid today,” Giles said. “It wasn’t like I was in a D1—I would’ve had to go to junior college, then a D1, then hopefully the NBA. But there was money available for me right now.”
Plenty of basketball fans never got a chance to watch Giles play live and are surely wondering what type of player he was. A New York-based high school scout recalled what it was like watching Giles play regularly in the early 1990s.
“He was a defender and he knew his role on the team,” Tom Konchalski said. “… But he was a good basketball player — typical inner-city, tough, gritty-but-focused guard.”
As for Chalmers, plenty of people know what the University of Kansas product has done throughout his professional career. He was acquired by the Heat prior to the start of the 2008-09 regular season and became a key rotation piece, averaging 8.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game for the franchise across multiple seasons.
He was eventually dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies and later found his way back to the Heat in December 2021 via a 10-day contract. The former second-round pick didn’t appear in a game for Miami during that stint, but many Heat fans enjoyed seeing him back with the organization.
It’ll be interesting to see if the one-on-one matchup between Chalmers and Giles ever takes place.
