National Champs Mario Chalmers & Jalen Wilson share their Jayhawk stories
In the first episode of Advance & Win, Playmaker’s Polo Kerber sits down with two Kansas basketball stars, Mario Chalmers & Jalen Wilson.
TLDR
Mario and Jalen share which of their Kansas championship squads would win against each other
As players that have gone through the Jayhawk program, the two share who would defeat one another in a 1v1 matchup
Both players share the experiences of what it was like to win their National Championships
Different eras of basketball breed different players and skillsets. There is no doubt that Mario Chalmers and Jalen Wilson both brought their A-game to Kansas and dominated in their respective years… but the real question is: who would win in a game between Jalen’s ‘22 team and Chalmer’s ‘08 team.
Both teams won a chip, so it’s safe to say the playing field is pretty even.
“I argue this all the time with [Mario],” Jalen said. “I’m always gonna take my team. I think we got bigger guards. We went down the list of matchups and I just wasn’t seeing how we were losing. I just felt like we’ve seen a lot. Although their Final Four did have all No. 1 seeds, which is pretty tough to do…but, I’m gonna take my team for sure. I like my squad.”
Jalen has every right to feel confident with his squad. I mean, he said it himself — being down by 15 at the half in a national championship game is not easy at all! Things they did: that.
What did the two-time NBA champ have to say about this debate though?
“Man, we’d beat them by 20…plus,” Mario said. “We were a different team. We were a different caliber of guys. We had 6 people, 7 people of that team touch the NBA. Four of us got drafted and then everybody else touched the NBA so I’m just saying, there’s no comparison.”
The man is spitting facts. You can never deny the talent of players who have reached the highest level of competition there is. Even though the two Jayhawks may disagree when it comes to which team is better, Jalen admitted that Mario would beat him in a 1v1 matchup.
“He practices with us sometimes when he comes to Lawrence and my thing is I’m not gonna play with him, I’m gonna go to the paint,” Jalen said. “He still can shoot, he’s still crafty like he still can play…he still got game.”
Jalen is 6’8’’ compared to a 6’2’’ Mario, so he would definitely be looking to use that mismatch size to his advantage. Either way, the former Miami Heat point guard thinks otherwise.
“It’s gonna take [Jalen] more than three dribbles to get me to the paint so…if we’re playing real NBA 1v1, you get three dribbles and you’re not posting me up with three dribbles,” Mario said. “And if you wanna play playground rules, you’re still not posting me up. If that’s your game plan to beat me, you’re playing it into my hands.”
After all, Mario is a big-time player that knows how to show up in big-time moments. Even during the ‘08 championship game, he was the man of the hour. Better yet, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tourney. Mario drained that three-pointer with just 2.1 seconds left in the game to secure the chip for his team over Derrick Rose’s Memphis Tigers.
At the end of the day, these are two All-American players who both can say they won a National Championship. Not many can say they have, but these two players know what it takes and spoke to the feeling of winning on the biggest stages of college hoops.
“It’s not even real, it’s insane” Jalen said. “We had a parade the next couple of days later it was like over 100,000 people there. You could just see how happy everybody was, not only for us, but I feel like everybody got a piece of the championship. The fans, you know, they felt that. They felt like we all won. Just the love everybody showed after we won was something I never could imagine.”
Mario shared similar sentiments reflecting on winning the natty decades ago.
“Stepping off that bus and having national championship with us, not only did the town go crazy, the city went crazy, the state went crazy,” Mario said. “They canceled school for everybody to go to the championship game so it was just a lot going on. Enjoyed the moment and had a lot of fun…I would have lines of people outside waiting for me to sign the Spots Illustrated that just dropped. ”
No doubt, it was “a parade inside their city”! Although these two hoopers won their tournaments 14 years apart, you can certainly say that Kansas breeds winners. The Jayhawk program is legit and if you need any proof of that just look to Mario or Jalen.
Even the Joker needs to get some Z’s 😴
Did you think the refs got this one wrong? 🧐
This guy switched up real quick 😂
This was a rookie move 🤦
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