March in the basketball world often only refers to one thing, and that’s the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness. The top Division 1 schools in the country make up a field of 64 teams that play a single-elimination tournament until only one team is left standing. It requires a team to win five straight games in the postseason with zero margin for error, as a loss is season-ending.
Mario Chalmers is one of the select few who can claim to have won March Madness as well as the NBA Finals. He won the NBA Championship in 2012 and 2013 with the Miami Heat, with his March Madness glory coming in 2008 with the Kansas Jayhawks. Chalmers played a key role in helping Kansas win the ultimate prize, something that even projected 2026 top pick Darryn Peterson couldn’t do with the college.
Chalmers was speaking to Bleacher Report about which of the two championships was a harder achievement for the guard. Chalmers didn’t hesitate before naming the challenge of winning March Madness as more difficult than winning an NBA Championship.
“I’d have to say college just because it’s one-and-done. That one-and-done game gets you every time. It took us three years to get to that. In the NBA, it’s a seven-game series. Getting there is the hard part, but once you get there, you’ve got to beat them four times, so you have more opportunities.”
Mario Chalmers averaged 12.8 points on 51.6% from the field and 46.8% from three with 4.3 assists and 2.5 steals per game. during his tournament season with the Jayhawks in 2008. He will forever be considered an icon for the program as he hit the game-tying three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to send the final against the Memphis Tigers to OT. That’s when the Jayhawks won, with Chalmers finishing the game with 18 points on 5-13 shooting from the field. He received Most Outstanding Player honors after the win.
Mario Chalmers averaged 10.4 points, 4.0 assists, and 1.8 steals for the Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals and 10.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in the 2013 NBA Finals, playing as the starting guard for the squad led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Notable teammates that Chalmers had during his time in Kansas include Brandon Rush, Darnell Jackson, Darrell Arthur, Cole Aldrich, and other players who made it to the NBA.
The degree of difficulty for both championships is incredibly high, but the stakes of March Madness are higher, given that one loss can lead to the end of your season. Getting to the NBA Finals is much harder than winning the Finals, given the grueling league and Playoff schedule the teams in the Finals need to overcome to get to that point.
Getting to the tournament isn’t hard for teams like the Jayhawks, who would get invited even if they had a .500 record over a season. But ensuring they win every game in the tournament without dropping a game is definitely an incredible challenge, and teams that pull it off are rightly remembered as legends.
The only players in the NBA who can claim to have achieved both feats are Anthony Davis (Kentucky 2012, Lakers 2020), Al Horford (Florida 2006, 2007; Boston Celtics 2024), and Christian Braun (Kansas 2022; Nuggets 2023).
