Chalmers Gets Chance to Rise Above Radar

When plucked by the Clippers last month as the fourth pick in the NBA draft, Shaun Livingston was at the center of the pomp and circumstance in New York, excitedly slipping a Clipper cap onto his head and striding confidently onto the stage to shake hands with Commissioner David Stern.

When drafted by the Clippers in the second round, the 33rd pick overall, Lionel Chalmers was at home in Albany, N.Y., watching on television. He missed hearing his name called because ESPN was in a commercial break.

Both are point guards, both are Clipper draft picks, but Livingston and the lightly heralded Chalmers have little else in common.

While the 6-foot-6 Livingston is an oversized playmaker, a prodigy who has been compared to a young Magic Johnson, the 6-foot (he says) Chalmers was one of the shortest players taken in the draft, drawing no comparisons to NBA legends.

While Livingston, 18, jumped directly from high school to the NBA, the 23-year-old Chalmers graduated from Xavier more than a year ago. While helping the Musketeers reach the round of eight in the NCAA tournament last season, he completed about half the classwork needed to earn a master’s degree in counseling.

And while Livingston is slotted into a guaranteed contract that will pay him about $8.1 million over the next three years, Chalmers awaits a make-good deal with the Clippers, meaning that he won’t be paid the NBA rookie minimum of about $400,000 next season unless he makes the team.

Not that the Clippers doubt the hard-charging Chalmers.

“We like his intensity, how hard he plays,” says assistant coach Jim Eyen, this week preparing Chalmers and a cast of Clippers and would-be Clippers (minus Livingston) for the Summer Pro League starting today in the Pyramid at Long Beach State. “We like his feel for the game, his ability to orchestrate from the point guard position. He’s a tough nut; he gets after it. That’s what endeared him to us initially, but also he’s a guy who can really score and shoot the ball.

“Sometimes that’s a tough combination to find: A guy that really gets after it, plays hard, defends, and also can shoot and has quarterback skills.”

Chalmers summoned all his gifts during the second half of last season. Along with backcourt mate Romain Sato, a second-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs, the fifth-year senior led Xavier on a 16-1 run that landed the Musketeers in the NCAA tournament’s round of eight for the first time in school history.

Along the way the Musketeers rolled to a 20-point victory over previously unbeaten Saint Joseph’s in the Atlantic 10 tournament; only a three-point loss to Duke in a regional final kept them from the Final Four.

Chalmers, voted most outstanding player in the conference tournament, averaged 21.8 points and 3.8 assists in the NCAA tournament.

The late push “brought more recognition to what I could do, and that’s what it’s all about,” he says. “People want players that step up when it’s time to step up, and I managed to do that in the tournament and we had a great tournament run.”

All told, though, Chalmers had nearly as many turnovers as assists last season, when he averaged 16.6 points on 44.9% shooting, 40.9% from beyond the three-point arc. He wasn’t even invited to the NBA’s predraft camp in Chicago last month, and the Clippers drafted him higher than any projection.

A late workout for the Clippers, in which he shared an El Segundo court with Livingston and No. 3 pick Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls only four days before the draft might have pushed Chalmers over the top.

Of those who have doubted him, Chalmers says: “You put that to the back and don’t worry about it and continue to prove people wrong.”

In his position, his undergraduate degree in communications arts might help.

“I feel like it relates to what I want to do in my career,” Chalmers says of his education, which Xavier has offered to continue funding. “As a point guard, you have to be able to deal with different personalities and different people.

“So if you can manage and know how to deal with that, it makes your job a lot easier. So I feel like if I can get some more tools to help me toward that, more is the benefit to me.”

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The Early Show

* What: Southern California’s Summer Pro League features NBA players -- mostly rookies and free agents -- from the Lakers, Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, New York Knicks, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs.

* When: Today through July 24 (games are at 10:30 a.m., 12:45 p.m., 3 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.).

* Where: The Pyramid at Long Beach State.

* Tickets: Individual daily tickets are $12, with access to all five games. Season passes are $100 and VIP season passes, which include courtside seats, are $575. Tickets are available at the Pyramid box office or online at www.longbeachstate.com.