When Mario Chalmers of Anchorage was just a toddler, he was already preparing to take the big shot.

At age 4, he used to sink game-winning baskets on a tiny basketball rim inside his eastside home while his parents counted down.

Three … two … one, the shot went up – nothing but net.

“He won a lot of national championships in that living room,” his dad, Ronnie Chalmers, told Yahoo Sports.

On April 8, 2008, Super Mario did it for real.

Chalmers swished a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in regulation of the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game, a basket that forced overtime and helped Kansas beat Memphis State 75-68 in San Antonio.

Chalmers, a 6-foot-1 junior and former Cook Inlet Conference star, finished with 18 points and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

With the title, Chalmers extended his championship-winning ways, adding to the two Alaska Class 4A state titles he won at Bartlett High School in 2003 and 2004.

After Kansas, he had many shining moments in the NBA and won two more titles as a starter on the Miami Heat.

But Chalmers will stand out in large part because of his memorable 3-pointer.

“I got a good look,” Chalmers told reporters after the game. “When it left my hand it felt good and I was just glad it went in.”

“Mario’s Shot” didn’t just extend the game: It gave Kansas its first national championship since 1988 and will be remembered as one of the greatest moments in the program’s storied history, putting the finishing touch on a rally from a nine-point deficit in the final 2:12 of regulation.

It was the kind of heroics most players only dream about.

— Van Williams