Caught Up By My Boys, # 420

So misery really does love company, as Shawne Williams has joined the ever-lengthening club of athletes who get caught up by the company they keep. Williams is (or was, based on the harsh words Larry Bird had for him) a forward with pretty meager numbers for the Indiana Pacers. I'm guessing you probably hadn't heard of him before this happened:

Williams, the Pacers' first-round draft pick last year from Memphis, was booked into the Marion County [Indiana] Jail early Tuesday on initial charges of possession of marijuana, driving without a license, driving with an expired license plate and failure to signal a lane change, police said.

Well, he's certainly not guilty of making good decisions! Read on:

Williams was driving the SUV, which was carrying two other men, when it was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling about 12:45 a.m., said Sgt. Matthew Mount, a city police spokesman.

When Williams rolled down the driver's side window, the officer detected a strong odor of marijuana, Mount said. Another officer later found a smoldering cigar-sized marijuana cigarette in the vehicle's ash tray, he said.

Both Williams and the front seat passenger, Roosevelt Rollins, of Memphis, Tenn., were arrested on marijuana possession charges.

"The guy in the front passenger seat, Mr. Rollins, said the marijuana was his and Mr. Williams denied knowledge of the marijuana even being in his car even though you could obviously smell the odor of burnt marijuana," Mount said.

Mount said Williams had no driver's license and instead handed the officer a Tennessee identification card. He said the SUV's license plate had expired in July.

The SUV's back seat passenger was arrested on charges of carrying a gun without a license and theft, as the 9 mm handgun had been reported stolen in Collierville, Tenn., according to a police report.

This stop clearly went from bad to worse for everyone involved, especially for his boy in the backseat. Let's just jump right into this one, shall we? Assuming only for the sake of argument that the allegations as true:

Lesson #1: If you play in the NBA, have an assistant who will renew your tags while you're playing in summer league.

Lesson #2: If an officer asks for your license, and you don't have it, just tell him that you forgot your license. ID cards are not acceptable alternatives.

Lesson #3: If at all possible, surround yourself with people who you can trust . . . and who don't have felonies just waiting to be discovered. For the love of all things you hold near and dear, please start hanging out with better people!

Lesson #4: If you are in Podunk, Indiana, or the same city in any other state, you play in the NBA (or look like you could), and you're driving an SUV, it's late at night, do everything you can to obey all driving laws.

And finally, Lesson #5: If you get pulled over and smoke that obviously smells like weed is pouring from your car, don't say you didn't know there was weed in your car. I don't know who told Williams that denial was a good move, but hopefully we all see how denying that you know anything can be worse than speaking up at all. Got it? Good.