Lesson for Marion: Truth has set Chambers free

DOHA, Qatar -- Everyone makes bad choices. In sports, doping is a very bad choice indeed.

If and when the authorities catch up to you, what then? How do you respond?

Perhaps it would prove illustrative to compare and contrast the fortunes of two of the central track and field figures from the BALCO doping scandal.

There's Marion Jones.

And then there's Dwain Chambers.

Jones has done time in federal custody. She has given back her Olympic medals. Her track career is done, and now comes the news that she has just signed a contract to play basketball for the WNBA's Tulsa Shock.

So apparently we now know, when the rhetorical question is asked about how far the mighty fall, where they fall to.

Tulsa.

As a publicity move, kudos to the Shock. Marion Jones arguably just became the most famous person in the entire metropolitan Tulsa area.

If it's abundantly clear the Shock is using Jones, what does she get out of this deal? Adulation -- which she always did seem to enjoy? Attention -- and the rush of being back, sort of, in the spotlight?

Is this a legitimate career move -- or will it ultimately prove to evoke the freak-show element so common to so many minor-league sports promotions? Is the world really clamoring for 34-year-old point guards who haven't played in 15 years?

"She's certainly entitled to go out there and make a living any way she can," USA Track & Field chief executive officer Doug Logan pointed out here Friday, adding, "I wish her well."

WNBA president Donna Orender, who attended the news conference earlier this week at which Jones was introduced as the newest Shock, told the Associated Press, "This is a tremendous, real-life story of a person who made a choice that was not a wise choice, but is saying, listen, ‘I'm going to be a role model, I'm going to showcase what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.

"I join the rest of America in wanting to watch this story unfold."

Perhaps the WNBA president as well as the rest of America might also want to remember what the federal judge who sentenced Marion Jones to custody said. He said that day from the bench that he believed she could have been more forthcoming.

Which is the key to unlocking the potential and promise in the next act in one's life -- acknowledging fully one's prior missteps. The truth really does set you free.

As Dwain Chambers could tell you.

Chambers is not only still running track but is arguably better than ever and has in significant measure been welcomed back by British track and field authorities.

With this major caveat: British Olympic Assn. rules say he's not allowed anymore to run in the Summer Games.

But Chambers is otherwise making the most of his second chance -- along the way pausing patiently and repeatedly to explain to anyone who asks, and he gets asked at virtually every turn, about how he erred and how he is now trying to make amends.

In one of those look-how-far-he-has-come moments, Chambers was among those invited to speak at the UK Athletics' pre-meet news conference here.

"For what it's worth, it's a great opportunity to actually be invited here," Chambers told reporters. "I've been working on building relationships, trying to do things right and get myself back into the fold of being an athlete and do the best I can as a competitor and try and go out there and show support for the British team and the British members that are alongside me.

"A lot has happened in the past and I want to just use this opportunity to put all that behind me and use this as a fresh start for everybody. So for me to be accepted here is a great feeling."

Usain Bolt is not in Doha -- he doesn't run the indoor 60. Tyson Gay isn't here, either.

Chambers is one of the standouts of this show. He has run the indoor 60 this season in 6.50 seconds. Only Ivory Williams of the United States has run it faster, 6.49, but Williams isn't here, either -- he drew a short suspension after a positive test for marijuana.

In Friday's prelims, Chambers ran 6.59, the day's fastest time. And Chambers didn't even have to go hard. He ran in the second of seven heats. The race was all but over after four strides.

The semifinals and finals go down Saturday. It may yet be that Dwain Chambers is your 2010 world indoor sprint champion.

"I can only comment on my own experience," he said Friday after the prelim when asked about the differences between himself and Marion Jones. "What I've done is something I've gained a lot of experience from," and he added a few moments later, "I feel much better for it."