Chalmers and Arthur Fined but Not Suspended

Tom Ziller alluded to it in this morning's Essentials, but in case you missed it, the NBA has decided to fine Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur $20,000 for their Rookie Symposium shenanigans. Losing 20 large stings, but the upside is that neither rookie will be suspended.

That's huge for Chalmers in particular since he's competing for a starting job -- the last thing he would have needed would be to let his competition get a head start early in the year. The whole debacle has still been an early stain on the rookies' careers, but Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel has some advice for turning things around:

Chalmers should thrust himself into community initiatives, should provide more than the amount of appearances required by the collective-bargaining agreement (yes, many of those "feel good" appearances actually are contractually bound), should be a keynote speaker at next year's rookie program about how a momentary lapse can lead to weeks of humiliation.

And then, close to the end of the season, the players' association and league quietly should either make the fine go away or make it become a very public chartable donation.

If Arthur and Chalmers really wanted to restore their good names, they could make a public show of doubling their fine, giving the NBA their $20K and giving another $20K to a local drug abuse prevention program. It'd be a small fraction of their annual income -- Arthur will make $977,00 this year; Chalmers, $700,000 -- but would provide priceless PR to help change the negative first impression they've already made with their new fans.