The player, ordered to his feet by the longtime referee Dick Bavetta, stood up like a timid first-grader in an auditorium packed with his schoolmates.

"I noticed you haven't been laughing at my jokes," Bavetta said. "No calls for you this year."

The relieved player, a recent lottery pick, and the 58 other N.B.A. rookies burst out in laughter. With Bavetta working the ballroom as if he were Jay Leno, there was plenty of chortling going on at the Dolce Tarrytown House.

But the National Basketball Association's Rookie Transition Program has been much more than fun and games. The six-day program has provided the rookies a crash course in life skills. Reporters were allowed to observe the program on the condition that the comments and questions raised in the sessions not be attributed to any specific player.

Business issues (financial planning, networking, media training), basketball issues (game rules, relating to referees, coaches' expectations), legal issues (sexual harassment, gambling, felony situations, identity theft) and personal matters (ethics, driving safety, drug and alcohol abuse, nutrition, relationships) have all been discussed in depth.

If anyone entered the program thinking the N.B.A. was just about playing basketball, they quickly found they were mistaken.

"The easiest part of being a rookie is on the court," said the former player Tim McCormick, now a regional representative with the players association. "They'll handle themselves fine on the court. But all of the outside influences that could derail them - that's my primary concern.

"The world of professional sports is a cold, cutthroat business. In high school and college, they were in a warm, nurturing environment where people were looking out for them. It's not like that anymore."