Chalmers, Arthur need to stay

Let’s get this straight. Former Kansas Jayhawks Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur made a bad decision and were thrown out of the NBA rookie transition camp, which is an annual event to help first-year players make better off-court decisions.

The NBA suspended the kids from school that didn’t want to be there anyway, even if they might have needed it the most.

Perhaps while they were there, Chalmers and Arthur could have learned something.

They knew they were not supposed to smoke pot. They knew having guests over was off limits. They know those things, among other things, but they’re young. They’re rookies. They apparently still need to be educated in the consequences of their actions, which will loom quite large from here on out.

The NBA was getting ready to teach them how to do it. But instead it told them to get lost.

They’re getting fined and possibly suspended, but it seems like the logical thing to do would be to find and suspend them, and to keep them at camp. They shouldn’t be able to play unless they go to camp.

If anyone needs a lesson on making good choices wouldn’t be a couple of guys that snuck weed and women into their hotel room — and then got caught?

Chalmers, the young man from Anchorage, Alaska, attended college in Lawrence, Kansas where. Miami is probably the biggest city in which he’s settled, and it happens to be a place known for providing vast opportunities for making poor choices when it comes to drugs and women. Miami is about as far away as he could be from Alaska, and it’s certainly not Kansas anymore.

Nightlife rules Miami life, but the NBA isn’t going to tell Chalmers that. Chances are now that someone will clue in the rookie.

Arthur is from Dallas, a city also known for its vice. He had a chance to thank Memphis for trading for him after New Orleans drafted him despite rumors he was medically unfit to play. Maybe this six-day camp would have helped him to understand that the Timberwolves did him a favor by not listening to what others had to say.

But the added blunder is the NBA telling them to come back next year, after playing an NBA season. A year from now it will teach them how to adjust to the NBA.

By then they will know all about the demands made to young millionaire basketball players.

But will they be able to deal with them?