Miami Heat and former KU basketball player Mario Chalmers works with youth at his basketball camp Monday, July 20, at the Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

I wish every freshman college basketball player considering leaping to the pros could have been in the Alvamar Country Club fireside room Sunday night to hear Mario Chalmers answer a question about what was a happier feeling, winning a national championship with Kansas University or an NBA title with the Miami Heat.

He answered that it was the NBA title, but in doing so illustrated how the roots of college basketball teams run so much deeper than any that could grow on a professional team.

“I don’t think I’ve ever told this to anyone before, but when we won the national title I was sad,” Chalmers said. “I was sad because I knew it was over.”

He knew that the team that had grown so much in three seasons together would never play again. He talked about how much they had gone through, dealing with deaths of family members, how close they all had become, “like brothers,” and how difficult it was at that moment to face the truth. He never again would be able to jet downcourt on a fastbreak with Russell Robinson and Brandon Rush, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun. He said he talks to Robinson, who was in the audience Sunday, and Rush, “almost every day.”

In the wake of the title, Chalmers figured he would return for his senior year, but without the men he called his brothers, it just wouldn’t be the same. It was one factor, Chalmers said, that led him to the decision to bypass his senior year and enter the NBA draft, where feedback had led him to believe he would get selected with one of the first 20 picks, a reasonable expectation for anybody who had watched Chalmers look so big-time in burying Texas with 30 points in the Big 12 conference tournament title game.

Chalmers lasted all the way until the 34th pick, a slight that gave birth to a huge chip on his shoulder that he brings onto the court with him for every game.

Way back in grade school, Mario’s mother, Almarie, revealed a guidance counselor had asked Mario what he thought he might want to do for a career. Mario said, “Play in the NBA,” which elicited another question: “What if the NBA is closed that year?”

The NBA is closed to many second-round picks, who don’t receive the guaranteed contracts that first-round picks do. Chalmers has earned $18,327,889-and-counting in salary. By the end of next season, that number will have grown to $22,627,889. That doesn’t count the priceless national-championship and NBA championship rings.

Chalmers makes Miami his home now and came to Kansas from Alaska.

He said he considers Lawrence to be home. It’s where his heart is. Every summer he returns to Kansas for his basketball camp and golf tournament, which raises money for the Mario V. Chalmers Foundation. A portion of this year’s proceeds will benefit Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence’s new Teen Center.

Mario’s Closet also has been one of the beneficiaries of the foundation. From the Lawrence Memorial Hospital website (lmh.org): “For men and women fighting cancer, Mario’s Closet is a comforting place that restores confidence, dignity and hope through image renewal,” and “offers affordable solutions to target physical effects of cancer treatment, including wigs and salon services, mastectomy bras and prostheses, cosmetics, skincare products and more.”

Chalmers shared a story of an elderly couple he had met and remains friends with today, making sure to see them when he visits. The woman told Chalmers she figured she had about two months to go until succumbing to cancer and after hearing about Mario’s Closet she was so touched that someone so young would care enough to help in that way that it renewed her will to live.

Hearing that from her remains a big moment for Chalmers.

Of course, Chalmers also talked about a big moment of another sort involving a three-point shot closely guarded by Memphis guard Derrick Rose. He was the perfect guy to take that shot for a couple of reasons.

For one, he had the right mentality. I’ll never forget late, great Rick Majerus, my teacher of a class called, “Theory of Coaching,” at Marquette in 1981 saying that the guy you want talking the big shot is the one who’s not going to be devastated if he misses. Chalmers has unshakable confidence.

Hearing Chalmers talk about his mother, it’s clear that she always has and always will stand 10 feet tall in his life. But it was the long reach of his 6-foot-4 father, Ronnie, that prepared Mario for the biggest shot in Kansas basketball history. At the last instant, Chalmers had to put extra loft on the shot to ensure it didn’t get blocked.

“That comes from playing against my father,” Mario said. “He was always blocking my shots.”

He learned to do it close to the hoop as well, which led to his lethal tear-drop shot on which he scored so many points for Kansas.

Foursomes remain available for purchase for today’s golf tournament at Alvamar. Registration is at 11:30 a.m., tee time 1 p.m.