Chalmers, Arthur caught with marijuana at rookie camp

Some info on the Rookie Camp.

NBA rookies take lessons in handling fame, fortune, fans
By O’Ryan Johnson

Twenty-two years ago the NBA and Boston Celtics legend Thomas “Satch” Sanders formed a crash course for rookie basketball players - essentially Celebrity 101 - where they learned to handle the kinds of crises that were sending many new hoop stars off the cliff.

Money, plus single women, plus hero worship from fans, was adding up to trouble, Sanders said. Things like having only two tickets to the NBA Finals and two dozen people, from the guy who first coached you, to your girlfriend, to your parents begging for seats.

“All of us can remember coming into this life, beginning to make decent money,” he said. “We had friends and family coming out of the woodwork. One of the things you have to learn is how to say no. If you’re stressing out are you really 100 percent focused on the game? Ticket situations can be so stressful. Something that seems so minute . . . can loom large.”

Sanders, a model NBA citizen who played with the great Bill Russell, was tapped to lead the Rookie Transition Program in 1986. The four-day, 48-hour camp has become a right of passage for matriculating stars. It wrapped up Friday in New York, where Sanders, 69, and the NBA’s senior vice president of player development, Mike Bantam, were on hand.

The program itself had a rough start this year. Wednesday, two NBA rookies - Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers and Memphis Grizzlies forward Darrell Arthur - were tossed from the seminar after hotel security guards found them in a room with two women and a strong smell of marijuana.

Each was fined $20,000 by the league and faces other action.

Bantam said the league employs a peer-to-peer system for the big questions - like how to swallow the giant social cocktail of money, fans and family without choking.

“We put a panel of players together and we let the players ask, ‘How do you deal with that?’ ” Bantam said. “You can’t come in to this business, from college or from Europe, and be prepared for the scrutiny and the pressure.”

The reputations of professional athletes and NBA players in particular have come under fire in recent years for off-court behavior.

Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest pleaded no contest to domestic violence charges in March 2007. Golden State Warrior guard Steven Jackson has had gun and strip club problems. Each man has landed in court, and both were hit with multiple game suspensions. Bantam brushed off the criticism, saying that per capita the 450 NBA players are far better behaved than society as a whole.

“You take that number and match that against the number of players that have run-ins with the law, it’s a very small percentage,” he said. “I’ll match our record against anybody. If you take that number of 450 guys, half of them have their own foundations to do things that help social causes.”

Though Sanders doesn’t run the camps any longer, he attends each year. He said while society may change, the problems rookies encounter do not. “Nothing much has changed,” he said. “The main thing was that their lifestyle was going to change abruptly. This has helped players avoid the pitfalls.”

:lol

Just do what Josh Howard did. Admit it to the world and be proud of your J smokin ways. Then the NBA doesn't do jack to ya.

NBA hits Chalmers with $20,000 fine; he won't face a suspension
By Ira Winderman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Heat has been informed by the NBA that point guard Mario Chalmers will not be suspended for his role in the incident that led to last week's expulsion from the Rookie Transition Program.

Although a suspension initially was a concern, Chalmers' penalty will be a $20,000 fine, as well as the requirement he repeat the program next year.

The second-round pick out of Kansas was expelled on the eve of the four-day symposium in Rye Brook, N.Y., for an incident involving outside guests at the league hotel.

The scent of marijuana also was noticeable in the room where Chalmers and fellow Kansas product Darrell Arthur were present, with Chalmers last week issuing a statement that he "did not smoke marijuana," an assertion also made by Arthur, a Grizzlies forward drafted in the first round.

Chalmers has since returned to South Florida, where has been working out at AmericanAirlines Arena. While the fine could be appealed, the players' union partnership in the rookie program makes it unlikely such action would be supported.