Anchorage Daily News

Editor's note: This story has been edited to correct an error. Mario Chalmers' 3-pointer late in the NCAA championship did not win the game, it forced overtime.

Mario Chalmers' gamble on the NBA Draft went bust Thursday.

The former Bartlett star who went on to win an NCAA championship this year at Kansas and entered the draft after his junior year, fell all the way to the second round where he was chosen by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fourth pick, 34th overall.

Later in the evening, the league announced that Minnesota traded his draft rights to the Miami Heat, who finished last season with the worst record in the NBA, for two future second-round picks and cash.

Chalmers' fall out of the first round means no guaranteed contract, no guaranteed money.

Basically, no guarantees at all, much to the dismay of friends and fans who gathered at the Peanut Farm for a draft party Thursday afternoon.

But while Chalmers' precipitous fall -- some analysts had him going as high as No. 12 overall, which would have made him an instant millionaire -- was no doubt discouraging, he need look no further than fellow Alaskan Carlos Boozer for inspiration.

Boozer, a dominant force at Juneau-Douglas High before attending Duke, was selected 35th overall by Cleveland in the 2002 draft. Since then he has since gone on to become a perennial All-Star and an Olympian. He signed a six-year, $68 million free agent contract with the Utah Jazz after the 2003-04 season.

Chalmers generated some pre-draft buzz with reports of solid individual workouts. That caused some experts to move him up their mock draft boards, and he was pegged to go somewhere in the middle of the first round. ESPN's Jay Bilas had him as the 22nd-best player available.

"It's an inexact science," Chalmers' college coach, Bill Self, told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World & News before the draft. "Based on reports I've received, there's a great chance Mario could be one of the surprise picks of the first round."

That kind of hype caused some of Chalmers' friends to hold the draft party. Sacramento's choice of Rider's Jason Thompson at 12, the highest Chalmers had been slotted, caused a wave of incredulity.

"Who's that?" asked Daniel Brown, a former teammate of Chalmers at Bartlett.

Chalmers' Kansas teammate, Brandon Rush, went at 13. A ripple of excitement tore through the crowd when Philadelphia picked Marreese Speights at 16 -- when NBA commissioner David Stern said the first syllable of Marreese (prounounced MAWR-eese), many thought he was going to say Mario.

But it was not to be, and Stern never would announce Chalmers' name -- he only conducts the first round.

When the Boston Celtics, picking 30th and last in the first round, chose J.R. Giddens, Brown groaned, "Are you serious?"

Finally, the Timberwolves picked the 6-foot-1 guard who hit a 3-pointer toward the end of regulation to force overtime in the championship game in April and earn tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

Chalmers' subsequent trade to the Heat means he'll get a chance to play with former NBA Finals MVP and former Great Alaska Shootout Most Outstanding Player Dwyane Wade.

The Heat selected Kansas State forwards Michael Beasley with the second pick and Darnell Jackson, a teammate of Chalmers at Kansas, with the 52nd overall pick.

Wade was the 2001 MOP in leading Marquette to the Shootout championship. Ryan Anderson, the 2006 Shootout MOP from California, went to the New Jersey Nets at No. 21. Courtney Lee, who shined in the 2007 Shootout with Western Kentucky, went to the Orlando Magic a pick later.

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