By: Jack Alfonso

There are some moves that a sports franchise never quite recovers from, leaving the fan base constantly wondering “what if.” With the Miami Dolphins, there was the decision by Nick Satan Saban to trade for Daunte Culpepper over signing Drew Brees.

With the Florida/Miami Marlins, there was the Miguel Cabrera-Dontrelle Willis trade. These two decisions have lived in infamy for years among South Florida sports fans, causing many tears and sleepless nights.

Many of these fans found comfort in knowing they had a successful world class NBA organization in the Miami Heat to root for. They took solace in the knowledge that the Heat would never cause them the same pain with such an idiotic move. Sadly these fans were wrong.

On November 10th, 2015, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat organization made a monumental mistake the caliber of the Miguel Cabrera trade, moving star point guard Mario Chalmers and wing James Ennis to the Memphis Grizzlies for point guard Benoit Uber and forward Jerry Strokes. The day the Heat traded Almario Vernard Chalmers will live in infamy for centuries.

If there was ever any doubt that the trade was a colossal mistake by Miami, Mario Chalmers’ play has quickly silenced it. In his first three games with the Memphis Grizzlies, the former Heat superstar has scored 56 points in 61 minutes. Mario has shot 52.2 percent from the field, 63.6 percent from three-point range, and 92.6 percent from the free throw line since joining his new team.

These statistics are impressive and are bound to improve exponentially as Chalmers gains chemistry with his new team.

‘Rio’s impact stretches well beyond the box score, though. Before Chalmers (or B.C.), the Memphis Grizzlies were 3-6 with an offensive rating of 94.2. In Mario’s first three games, the Grizzlies have gone 3-o and posted an offensive rating of 109.4. Mario Chalmers singlehandedly doubled his new team’s win total.

Let’s compare this to the Miami Heat. Since losing their superstar point guard the Miami Heat has only managed to win 2 games, and the absence of Mario “Mister Clutch” Chalmers has definitely been felt. The other players tasked with replacing ‘Rio just haven’t been able to rise to the challenge. Since joining Miami as a product of the Chalmers trade, point guard Benji Ulrich has totaled 2 measly points on 33.3 percent shooting.

Tyler Johnson has done the best job of replacing Chalmers, but has only managed to score 26 points since the trade (that is 30 points less than Mario has scored in that time span) and has a plus/minus of -2.5. Not even Goran Dragic has been able to match Mario’s production. Goran has scored 18 points on 32.1% shooting since the trade.

Maybe the most alarming statistic of all though is rings. Mario Chalmers has two championship ringz. The three Heat guards I mentioned have a total of one championship ring combined. THAT IS HALF AS MANY RINGZ. Trading more rings for fewer rings makes zero sense to me, but what do I know? I’m just a simple college student with a mediocre twitter account (FOLLOW @ALFONSOHOOPS) and an inconsistent jump shot. I am far from a basketball guru. If you (understandably) don’t want to listen to me, maybe you’ll listen to an NBA legend explain the logical fallacy of trading more rings for fewer rings.

@Taii_18mulaa y trade 4 championships combined for no championships at all. Guess that’s y not a GM huh — Mario Chalmers (@mchalmers15) February 6, 2015

The Miami Heat claims to be a championship organization, but this move is clear, irrefutable evidence that Pat Riley and co. don’t truly believe winning is the priority. The Mario Chalmers trade will forever be remembered as the event that caused the Miami Heat’s fall from grace and journey into perpetual mediocrity.