NBA trying to ease rookies into their pro careers with helpful tips

Training camp will come soon enough for Timberwolves rookie point guard Kris Dunn.

But his real NBA education has already begun, and it has nothing to do with the finer points of running a professional offense.

Dunn is among the first-year players who participated in the NBA's mandatory Rookie Transition Program. The four-day program in New Jersey concluded Thursday, but not before Dunn and fellow rookies were given guidance on everything from finances to relationships to navigating social media.

In a phone interview Thursday, Dunn said there were several helpful topics, though he said the sessions on money were the most instructive.

"Everybody here is making a good amount of money, and you want to learn how to manage that," Dunn said. "You don't just want to give your money to anybody. You need to learn about your money and where it's going."

For Dunn, that's easier than it is for many of his peers. First off, he's 22 — having spent four years at Providence, one of them a redshirt year after an injury. That's young in adult years but relatively old in NBA rookie years. Second, he has multiple relatives who are accountants and can give him advice.

"If I was coming in at 19, the first thing I'd be doing is buying multiple things because I would be young and want to have things. I wouldn't know any better," he said. "Being in college in four years, learning about life and myself, it helps me understand we are making good money but if you don't manage it right it won't last for long."

That's part of the message the NBA is trying to convey, particularly with stories of bankrupt athletes cropping up frequently.

"It's a major headline for us," said Greg Taylor, the NBA's senior vice president of player development. "We know the guys are experiencing sudden wealth syndrome. How do you begin to manage it?"

Taylor also stressed the work the league is doing to educate young players in relationships with family, friends and romantic partners. Players learn, he said, "what is consent, how do you communicate effectively, as well as understand what domestic violence is."

Purvis Short, who directs the NBA Players Association's department of player programs and works on the transition program from the players' side, said he wishes the program was around when he was a rookie — No. 5 overall pick, just like Dunn — in 1978. Still, he was there for the first one in 1986 as a union rep and is a big believer in the program.

"To see how far we've come is a tremendous tribute to the players' association and the NBA in terms of the level of care and attention being provided to first-year players," Short said. "It's a huge endeavor, but I look back and marvel at the information they're getting. They're not going to grasp everything in four days, but we build from this."