The Unsung – Pioneers of the Past Vol. 1.

Harry Haskell "Bucky" Lew (January 4, 1884 – October 22, 1963) 

Leo F. Ferris (May 31, 1917 – June 1, 1993)

Wataru Misaka (December 21, 1923 – November 20, 2019) 

Played for (Lew): Lowell P.A.C. (1902–1903), Haverhill (1903–1905), Peabody (1905–1906), Lowell Five (1905–1926), Springfield (AC) (1906–1907), Brattleboro Athletics (1906–1907), Lowell (1908–1909, 1915–1916)

Managed (Ferris): Founder of Buffalo Bisons (modern Atlanta Hawks) in 1946, NBL vice president (1948-1949), General manager of Syracuse Nationals (1949-1955)

Played for (Misaka): Weber State (1941–1943), Utah (1943–1944, 1946–1947), New York Knicks (1947)

I would like to introduce a pioneers group to the Unsung Hall of Fame, which is meant to honor pioneers that either haven't got their due from a select Hall of Fame (in this case the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame) or folks that don't have enough of a history within a major league to write about for their own entry. In short: guys who played in the way way back*. Born in Massachusetts, Mr. Lew is considered the first black professional basketball player. He apparently started playing basketball from a young age, which included the local YMCA team. As an 18-year-old, he played ball with the Lowell P.A.C. (Pawtucketville Athletic Club) of the New England Professional Basketball League, which occurred after a series of injuries forced his manager to put him on the court on one November 7, 1902. Sure, it was hard to do say, a long-range shot with no backboard or get points at will, but the 5'8 Lew cultivated a fairly lengthy career even with the disbanding of the New England League in 1905 as Lew barnstormed around the region for the next 20 years while running a dry-cleaning business on the side. In the first 50 years of the 20th century, there were opportunities for black men to play in basketball to varying levels of acceptance from teams such as New York Renaissance & Harlem Globetrotters to pioneers like Lew that basically have been forgotten. A biography of him came out in recent years that likely has insight on the man beyond basketball.

Ferris has been continually ignored by the Basketball Hall of Fame despite clear and obvious accomplishments as an executive. The Elmira, New York native co-founded the Buffalo Bisons with Ben Kerner in the National Basketball League in 1946. The Bisons later relocated and rebranded to become the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (as one does when playing in Illinois), then Milwaukee as the Hawks, and, well, St. Louis and Atlanta. Ferris signed Pop Gates, the first black player to play in the league since the 1942-43 season had seen players of all colors due to roster depletion (Dolly King became the second by the Rochester Royals a few days later). Ferris soon became involved in the front office of the NBL, even becoming vice president in 1948 that saw him try to combat the Basketball Association of America. In 1949, he focused his attention at the position of GM for the Syracuse Nationals of the NBL and signed a handful of players that became noted stars such as Dolph Schayes and Al Cervi. On August 3, 1949, the NBL and BAA merged, for which the NBA willfully ignores by pretending the BAA history is what matters to them in anniversaries. Most importantly, Ferris, alongside Nats owner Danny Biasone, devised a way to make games more interesting with: a shot clock (others had ideas of doing a shot clock, most notably Oregon/Yale coach Howard Hobson, and Nats scout Emil Barboni also had a contribution). Yes, until the 1954-55 season, the NBA just let teams...have the ball without any way to stop them besides hoping they missed. The :24 part likely came because of Ferris, who calculated the number of seconds in a 48-minute game (2880) by the average shots seen taken in a game (120). The team went to the Finals three times and won it all in 1955, the year that Ferris had left sports to do real estate. A tough negotiator ignored by the time he died in 1993, the Ferris family still waits for his induction. Biasone got inducted in 2000 for the Hall of Fame with his contributions, even though, you know, it was Ferris who also was there with the idea of the shot clock. At least Syracuse recognizes Ferris in their Hall of Fame and his name (alongside Biasone, Hobson, and Barboni) is also included on the shot clock monument in the city.

Misaka's story is one of perseverance that merits kudos. Born in Ogden in hardship as a second generation Japanese American in the 1920s, he saw discrimination from a young age in his youth that saw him play basketball for Ogden High that won a state championship in 1940. He started his college education in 1941 at Weber College that excelled to win multiple ICAC junior college titles. He was named the 1943 athlete of the year for the college. He then took his studies to Utah in 1943 and his defense (for which he earned the nickname "Kilowatt") soon played key to success. The 1943-44 lost three times in the regular season and were slated to just play in the NIT. They lost in the first round but a stroke of chance (a car accident that saw Arkansas drop out) saw them invited to the NCAA tournament, where they played four days after the NIT loss. In the eight-team tournament, Utah beat Missouri 45-35 and Iowa State 40-31 to get to the championship, where they won 42-40 in overtime at Madison Square Garden over Dartmouth for the NCAA title. He was soon drafted for the war effort and became a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army before the war ended. He returned in 1946 to Utah and in his final season, the Utes beat Kentucky in the 1947 NIT 49-45. Drafted in the 7th round of the BAA draft in 1947 by the New York Knicks, he ended up getting a spot on the team in a historic occasion ignored by basically everyone: the only person of color to play in the BAA (yes, the NBL was considerably less racist, but the NBA is terrible at their own history); in 1950, the NBA had its first black players. Misaka played three games for the Knicks and scored seven points for a crowded team that cut him in mid-season. Rejecting an offer from the Harlem Globetrotters to pursue engineering, Misaka became an electrical engineer in Salt Lake City and had a worthwhile life with a family, a 2009 documentary, a 2022 jersey honoring and various Hall of Fame inductions: Weber State & Utah Crimson Club, and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. Not bad for a 5'7 guard.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome this group to the Hall with a blanket induction.

N O T E S

*There will also be a blanket induction for players/managers of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League as well, starting with three folks to be named later. You might recognize that the AAGPBL has its own exhibit in the National Baseball Hall of Fame but, well, this seems like a good time to name some names as well.

The Unsung – Shaun Alexander.

Shaun Edward Alexander (born August 30, 1977)

Played for: Seattle Seahawks (2000–2007), Washington Redskins (2008)

Shaun Alexander Pro-Football Reference [player]) statistics 

9,453 rushing yards, 4.3 yards per carry, 100 rushing touchdowns

215 receptions for 1,520 yards and 12 touchdowns

NFL Most Valuable Player (2005)

NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2005)

2× First-team All-Pro (2004, 2005)

3× Pro Bowl (2003–2005)

NFL rushing yards leader (2005)

2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (2001, 2005)

NFL scoring leader (2005)

You might wonder to yourself: Shaun Alexander? NFL Films even did a whole video about him and referred to him as "The Best Running Back You Forgot About". Born in Kentucky, Alexander actually excelled in football only in the middle of his sophomore season at Boone County High School, to the point where he left high school with 110 touchdowns on just over 6,000 yards. At the University of Alabama, he ran for less than 600 yards in each of his first two years, but he had a 1,000-yard season as a junior in 1998 with 12 touchdowns. Coming back for his senior year, it saw him lead the NCAA in points with 144 while having 19 rushing touchdowns (tied for the most that season) as Alabama won the 1999 SEC Championship. In 2000, the Seattle Seahawks (of the AFC, until 2002) had the 19th pick in the draft when they traded Joey Galloway to Dallas. They used that pick to select Alexander, where he had all of 64 carries as a rookie for the 2000 season behind another unsung legend in Ricky Watters; in his one start that year, in Week 5 against Kansas City, Alexander had 11 carries for 74 yards and his first touchdown as a player in the 24-17 loss. Shoulder injuries to Watters by the third week of the 2001 season led to Alexander getting the keys to being the main back against Jacksonville in Week 4 and he never looked back. He had 31 carries that day for 176 yards with two touchdowns in the 24-15 win. With a quarterback room of Trent Dilfer (four games) and Matt Hasselbeck, Alexander was tasked to run heavily, which saw him run 29+ times in five of his 12 starts. His monster game by far was against Oakland in Week 9 where he ran for 266 yards on 35 carries for three touchdowns in the 34-27 win to break the franchise record for rushing yards that had been set by Curt Warner in 1983 (Alexander's record still stands). Overall, Alexander ran for 1,318 yards on 309 carries for 14 touchdowns for 4.3 yards a carry (he also added 44 receptions for 343 yards and two touchdowns). Alexander would finish in the top 10 for carries in a season five times from 2001 to 2005 (9th, 10th, 7th, 3rd, 1st) on a team that topped out as the third best running team for yards in 2005.

In the 2002 season (now in the NFC), Alexander reached further heights, setting a new record for rushing touchdowns for a Seahawk (breaking the 1995 record by Chris Warren of 15), doing so with a league-leading 16 touchdowns on 295 carries for 1175 yards. Alexander ran for under 40 yards in each of the first three games of the season, but he had a game for the books against Minnesota on September 29: He ran for 139 yards on 24 carries and caught three passes for 92 yards for a combined total of five touchdowns, all in the first half of a 48-23 win. Sure, the Seahawks went 7-9, but a chunk of that came with Alexander's scoring bonanza, which saw him run for five combined touchdowns in the final three games (all wins) to get to 16. It came together in 2003 on two levels: In 16 games (15 starts, as he was late to a game due to family emergency), he ran for 1435 yards with 14 touchdowns and got named to the Pro Bowl. He reached the playoffs for the first of five straight years and had an unusual game for the books. He ran 20 times for just 45 yards but had three touchdowns, all of them coming in the second half (his last one came with :55 to tie the game) as Seattle lost 33-27 to Green Bay in the "We want the ball and we're gonna score!" game. He continued to rise in yards with 1696 in 16 games of the 2004 season (106 yards per game) with 16 touchdowns while leading the way with 20 combined rushing/receiving touchdowns. The 2004 season ended on a strange note. Alexander was not given the ball with the team at the 1-yard line (2nd and goal, mind you) in a 21-20 game. Seattle got the yard with a Hasselbeck run and never got the ball back in a 28-26 win that saw Alexander fall one yard short of Curtis Martin for the rushing title that saw Alexander grouse for a moment at Holmgren. In the Wild Card round, he ran for just 40 yards on 15 carries in the 27-20 loss.

And then, 2005. With career/league highs of 370 carries and 1,880 yards, he ran away with the MVP and the Offensive Player of the Year awards and had 27 touchdowns (with one receiving TD) as Seattle went 13-3 and won every single home game that year. The 2005 playoffs saw him have varied success. He only had six carries in the Divisional round win against Washington before exploding for 132 yards on 34 carries with two touchdowns to lift Seattle to their first NFC Championship title. In Super Bowl XL against Pittsburgh, he had 95 yards on 20 carries that saw Seattle miss a few field goals (and maybe get stiffed on a call or two) in the 21-10 loss. When comparing every player in a random span of 50 games for touchdowns, there's LaDainian Tomlinson and Priest Holmes leading the crowd...and then Alexander with 68 from 12/15/2002 to 12/24/2005. The 2005 season saw him become the first player with five straight 15-touchdown seasons in NFL history (Tomlinson passed him with his sixth in 2007).  And yes, there's Alexander on top of a few legends for both awards:

A broken foot (in week 3) and a big contract (eight years, over $60 million) overshadowed Alexander and his 2006 season, where he ran for 896 yards in 10 games with 7 touchdowns. He had a 100-yard game in the Divisional Round game against Chicago that they lost 27-24. His 2007 season saw him suffer injuries to his wrist, knee, and ankle to get 716 yards in 10 games with four touchdowns. In the December 30th game against Atlanta, he became part of history when his two-yard run for a touchdown gave him his 100th career rushing touchdown. In the two playoff games that year, he ran for a total of 66 yards on 24 carries, which included a touchdown against Green Bay that ended up being his last ever one as a pro player in the 42-20 loss. He was then released. Incidentally, he still leads the franchise for most 150+ rushing yard games with 11. Now 31 years old, he signed with Washington for 2008 and played four games with no touchdowns and retired.

You might wonder: how does he compare for players that ran from their 1st to 9th season? Alexander actually fits at 26th, right in the middle of a few Hall of Fame players such as say, Earl Campbell (who ran the same 2,187 times as Alexander, but for only 9407 yards). He also ranks 29th in yards per game by that same measure with 76.9, which is not too shabby. And the easy question: how many players had 100 rushing touchdowns in their first nine seasons? Just five, and Alexander is one of them alongside Tomlinson, Emmitt Smith, Jim Brown, and Derrick Henry (yes, not even Barry Sanders had 100 touchdowns in his first nine seasons - he had 95). You might think, oh, well, he had two Hall of Fame blockers with Walter Jones (the nine-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle) and Steve Hutchinson (the seven-time Pro Bowl guard he played with until 2005). If having great blockers is meant to be a detriment saying who had the better career, well, they put in Terrell Davis for having four 1,000-yard seasons as a peak before injury...while Alexander had five 1,000-yard seasons to go along with being one of 36 players (as of 2026) with five seasons of 10 touchdowns (also of course he had good blockers, how many great running backs go around with poles for blockers?). Did I mention the rare club of multiple 20-touchdown seasons (six people)? Or that when Alexander retired in 2008 that his 28 games with 2+ touchdowns actually was in the top 15 for a career? Why should a player with over 100 total touchdowns, a mark achieved by less than three dozen players in a league that has been around for 100+ years, be ignored? (he has never even been a finalist) 

Alexander and his place in the 100 TD club is assured for history to judge, and if being on the Seahawks Ring of Honor and the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team (second-team) is enough to honor Alexander's place in football, well, that's more than most people get in their career.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Shaun Alexander to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo credit: https://50.seahawks.com/players/shaun-alexander

*On an unrelated note, Torry Holt is still waiting for the Hall of Fame as a 2000 All-Decade guy while Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens, all selections to that team, are in the Hall.

*You know, Priest Holmes might deserve a case here too. 

The Unsung — Darrell Evans.

Darrell Wayne Evans (born May 26, 1947)

Played for: Atlanta Braves (1969–1976, 1989), San Francisco Giants (1976–1983), 

Detroit Tigers (1984–1988)

Darrell Evans (Baseball Reference [Player] — Third baseman / First baseman (3B / 1B)

2,687 games, slash-line of .248/.361/.431; 1,354 RBIs, 2,223 hits, 414 HR, 119 OPS+, 58.7 WAR

2× All-Star (1973, 1983)

World Series champion (1984)

AL home run leader (1985)

Baseball historian Bill James famously described Evans as "the most underrated player in baseball history." It occurred to me I haven't covered a baseball unsung hero in a while, so why don't we dwell on the story of a player who surely would've been more loved if he played just a few years later? Evans was born in Pasadena, California to a sports-connected family: his dad played semipro baseball and his mother played pro softball. He excelled at John Muir High in baseball and basketball before going to Pasadena City College. He actually was drafted multiple times by MLB teams (1965, 1966, 1967, it was a different time) before finally landing upon the Kansas City Athletics in the 1967 draft. However, he suffered a sore arm (not helped by service in the Marine Corps Reserves) by 1968, he was left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft that saw him selected by the Atlanta Braves. Evans did break into the major leagues in 1969, although the 1969 and 1970 seasons saw him play in just 24 total games with 20 hits. Crediting the influence of Eddie Mathews (the former third base icon for the Braves who served as coach in 1971-72 before becoming manager from 1972-1974) for aiding in his swing and defense, Evans would become the third baseman for the Braves on a fulltime basis in 1972 (after playing 72 in 1971) and did so for the next four years. On May 29, 1971, Evans hit his first home run, doing so off against the Cardinals and Bob Gibson in St. Louis. In 89 games of the 1971 season, he hit .242 while walking 39 times to striking out 54 times. Evans had a neat year with 1973: he hit .281 with career highs in home runs (41), RBIs (104), hits (167), and walks (124). With Hank Aaron hitting 40 and Davey Johnson hitting 43, the '73 Braves became the first team with three 40-HR hitters on the same team (meanwhile, the team went 76-85-1).

Evans played a tiny part of baseball history on April 8, 1974: when the Braves played the Dodgers in Atlanta, Evans led off the 4th inning with a groundball error. The next batter was, well, Hank Aaron, who hit a deep home run to left field for his historic 715th home run. Evans didn't get named an All-Star that year, but he did have a league-leading 126 walks to 88 strikeouts with 25 home runs. He had 105 walks in 1975, the last season before he took a stopover in playing other positions (1976 at first base, 1977 in left field). He batted .173 for Atlanta in 44 games before being traded to the San Francisco Giants on June 13 (with Marty Perez) for Jake Brown, Mike Eden, Willie Montañez and Craig Robinson. In 92 games with San Francisco, he batted .222 but at least had ten home runs (in contrast, he had one with Atlanta). In his first full season with the Giants, he batted .254 and had 17 home runs (of note is yet another walks over strikeout season: 69 to 50). By the time the season was over, Evans was 30 years old and had a total of 147 home runs with 493 RBIs and a batting average of .248. Some things, well, would change.

Sure, the Giants didn't reach the postseason with Evans, but he cultivated a solid enough part of his career there, playing 1,094 of his 2,687 games in San Francisco. He had more walks than strikeouts in each of his eight seasons with the team (peaking with 105 walks in his 1978 season) and even garnered one more All-Star season in 1983 with a 30-HR year and a .277 batting average in 142 games. He entered the free agent market in 1984 and amidst a feeding frenzy, he selected the three-year deal of Detroit, who got their "big name" guy for roughly $2 million; he would play first base/DH for the team. Evans was 36 going on 37 when he entered Detroit. Age looked to be against that year, where he batted .232 with 16 home runs while, again, walking more than striking out (77-70). He finally saw the postseason that year due to, well, being on the 1984 Detroit Tigers, but he had just four hits in eight postseason games as Detroit won the championship over San Diego. Evans would have a banner year in 1985, hitting 40 home runs to become both the oldest guy to hit 40 in the AL (a mark not topped for three decades) and the first to hit 40 home runs in the AL and NL (when the leagues were treated as, well, separate entities). Not bad for a year where he struck out/walked the same amount (85); of note is that he joined the 300 HR club on July 28, 1985. He continued to defy the odds a little while longer in age before HR beauty, hitting 29, 34, and 22 in his final three seasons for Detroit, which saw him reach the 400 HR mark on September 20, 1988. Evans apparently had a few key lessons to stick around for so long without even one trip to the injury list: not going down to the weight room after a game (instead spending that time to work on the mental side), aiming for eight hours of sleep, concise batting practice sessions that worked on quality over quantity, and fitness that basically saw him run a few miles a day six days a week. He played his final year as a free agent for Atlanta in 1989, hitting 11 home runs in 107 games that saw him bat .207. He hit 230 home runs in the decade of the 1980s, 6th best for all players in that time. In total, only Mike Schmidt. Reggie Jackson, and Dave Kingman hit more home runs than Evans from 1969 to 1989. He was released by the team in 1990, narrowly avoiding being one of the few players to play in four decades. Evans subsequently spent a number of years coaching and managing in the minor leagues (with the Golden Baseball League, he won the 2007 title with Long Beach).

Evans was used all over the place for fielding: 1,442 games at third base, 856 at first base, 22 at shortstop, 83 at left field, 253 at DH, and a few games as pinch hitter/runner. When Evans had his fifth 100-walk season in 1987 (having previously done so in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1978), he was one of just 24 players with at least five 100-walk seasons (nowadays, 39 people are in that club), which coincidentally was the same amount as his idol, Eddie Mathews. He had 19 seasons with at least ten home runs, which actually is pretty good for those who favor consistency* and also is a thing that only seventeen other players have done in MLB history. Only Carlton Fisk had more home runs than Evans for guys after turning 40 years old. For the sabermetrics crowd, it should be noted that for guys with a batting average under .250, Evans managed to collect 58.7 wins above replacement (WAR), second only to Graig Nettles. For OPS+ for ballpark/league adjusted numbers, Evans and his 119 OPS+ actually is 13th. Nobody walked more times (1605) than Evans when it comes to guys who hit under .250, nobody had more runs than Evans (1344) and only Nettles had more hits than Evans (as for home runs, Adam Dunn and Dave Kingman have more than Evans). In his one year on the BBWAA ballot, he had 1.7 percent of the vote in 1995. At least the Giants inducted him into their team Wall of Fame, doing so in 2008. A career that spanned three decades, 400 home runs, 2,000 hits, and a world championship is still a pretty nice story. 

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Darrell Evans to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Darrell_Evans_1983.jpg

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/290794/cid/17593145/1984-Detroit-Tigers-Photocards-NNO-Darrell-Evans

*Gene Tenace, hmm...

*Among active players, Andrew McCutchen leads the way with 17.

The Unsung – Bill Bridges.

William C. Bridges (April 4, 1939 – September 25, 2015) 

Played for: Kansas City Steers (1961–1962), St. Louis /Atlanta Hawks (1963–1971), Philadelphia 76ers (1971–1972), Los Angeles Lakers (1972–1974), Golden State Warriors (1975)

Bill Bridges (Basketball Reference [Player] — Power forward / Center (PF / C)

11,012 points (11.9 points per game), 11,054 rebounds (11.9 rebounds per game), 2,553 assists (2.8 assists per game) in 926 games

 

NBA champion (1975)

3× NBA All-Star (1967, 1968, 1970)

2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1969, 1970)

All-ABL First Team (1962)

Yes, you heard that right: a player with more rebounds than points for a career. For players with 10,000 points and 5,000 rebounds, there exists six players with more rebounds than points: Bill Russell, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld, Dikembe Mutombo, Paul Silas...and Bridges. Bridges excelled in basketball in his native hometown of Hobbs, New Mexico, which saw him win state high school championships in 1956 and 1957 while losing only five games. He enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1957 and waited out the then-rule that freshmen couldn't play varsity ball with plenty of practice and a scholarship. From 1958 to 1961 with 78 games played, he averaged a double-double as a rebounding leader for the Big Eight while reaching both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, the very first player in program history to do so.

He was presented with offers from the NBA (with the Chicago Packers) and the upstart American Basketball League (with the Kansas City Steers) in 1961. He chose the Abe Saperstein-founded ABL and played the 1961-62 season with Kansas City, who went 54-25 and made the ABL Finals only to lose to the Cleveland Pipers. He averaged 21.4 points per game and 13.4 rebounds and was named to the All-ABL First Team. In the second season of the doomed league, Bridges set a ABL record in points with 55 on December 9, 1962. He later had a knee injury in that month, but fate lent a hand in not missing much. Substantial losses (such as losing the Pipers after the first season) led to the dissolving of the league on New Year's Eve of 1962; Kansas City was 22-9 and the best team in the league at the time it went under. The points leader that year with 849 in 29 games (29.2 average), Bridges also ranked as the all-time ABL leader in rebounds with 1,496 in 108 games. Days later, on January 8, 1963, Bridges played his first game in the NBA with the St. Louis Hawks against the Lakers. He recorded one rebound in four minutes; five days later, he recorded his first double-double, having 12 points and 10 rebounds in a 105-104 win against Cincinnati. He played in 27 games that year and almost recorded more rebounds (144) than points (164). In the eight-team NBA playoffs, Bridges had three games with over 10 rebounds (all in the first round: Game 1, 2, and 4 of the Division Semifinals against Detroit). In the 1963 Western Division Finals against the Lakers, with a chance to go to the NBA Finals, Bridges shot 37.3% from the field with 5.3 rebounds as the Hawks lost in seven games. The 6'6 power forward would play for the Hawks for eight more postseasons (with two division titles), which included six total trips to the Division Finals (one step away from the NBA Finals), but they lost them all.

Bridges would gradually go up in minutes per game from season to season, going from 13.9 in that first year to 24.4 in the 1963-64 season to over 30+ minutes in eight straight seasons from 1965 to 1973. He had his first season averaging 10+ points/10+ rebounds a game in the 1964-65 season, averaging 11.5 points and 10.8 rebounds in 79 games. In seven straight seasons (1965-1972), he was in the top ten in the league in total rebounds (topping out at 5th in the 1966-67 season with 1,190). He peaked in points for a game with 37 in a loss against Detroit on December 26, 1967. The 1967-68 season saw him lead the league in fouls, with 366, which actually was a league record for two years. He received a little bit of recognition with the Hawks, where he was named to the All-Star Game three times and the All-Defensive Second Team twice in the span of four years (1967-1970). For whatever reason, 14 games into the 1971-72 season, Atlanta felt they needed to trade for Jim Washington (interestingly, despite being four years younger than Bridges, Washington and Bridges wound up retiring in the same year in 1975. Bridges departed the team with the second most rebounds in league history next to Bob Petitt. Since 1962, the first year that Bridges played in Atlanta, no player has recorded more total rebounds than him for the franchise, with Kevin Willis coming the closest with 7,332.

Oddly enough, his high in rebounds for a game came with Philadelphia: he had 32 in a win versus Seattle on March 19, 1972. In 78 total games of the 1971-72 season, he averaged 12.6 points with 13.5 rebounds. The 1972-73 season basically became an "outhouse to the penthouse story" for Bridges. The 1972-73 76ers, coached by a combo of Roy Rubin and Kevin Loughery to a total of 9 wins, but Bridges was around for only ten games before Philadelphia traded him and Mel Counts on November 2 for Leroy Ellis and John Trapp. Bridges had his final season with 30 minutes per game, averaging 35 with 10.3 points and 11 rebounds per game. In the playoff run, he averaged over 30 minutes while getting 9.3 rebounds and 8.9 points per game as the Lakers lost to the Knicks in five games in the NBA Finals. The 1973-74 season saw him mostly played on the bench and the early part of the 1974-75 season was much of the same. Troubled by knee injuries and an elbow injury (which eventually healed), he played a total of 32 whole games and averaged 13 minutes with 2.7 points and 7.7 rebounds. The Lakers waived him in December 1974 before Bridges was recruited to play for the Warriors in March 1975. In the 1975 playoffs (in which a 48-win Golden State was the #1 seed in the Western Conference), he would log in 148 minutes, with the most significant action coming in Game 6 of the Conference Finals against Chicago. He logged eleven rebounds (ten defensive) as the Warriors beat the Bulls 86-72 to force Game 7. In his last games as a player in the 1975 NBA Finals against the heavy favorite Washington Bullets, Bridges logged in seven rebounds with four whole points, but the Warriors rolled anyway to a four-game sweep (besides, Game 2 and 4 were decided by one point each, and Bridges had two points in each) to let Bridges go out a winner. He served as an environmental consultant in California for many years. 2004 saw Bridges honored by Kansas with a jersey retirement (thanks to the efforts of booster Bernie Morgan). 2014 and 2016 saw him inducted into the New Mexico and Kansas Sports Halls of Fame. He passed away from cancer in 2015 at the age of 76. 

This Hall is practically built for guys like Bridges in unsung heroes that did their job well and aren't given as much attention as they deserve. Bridges and his 11.94 rebounds per game ranks 18th in NBA/ABA history. 452 of his 926 career games ended up with him having at least 10 points and 10 rebounds, which actually ranks among the top 50 for 10/10 games in NBA history. Of course, Bridges isn't the leader for non-HOFers, because it currently is held up by current player Nikola Vučević (582) and Buck Williams (572), but still*. In the top 30 for rebounds per game, only the following are not in the Hall: Bridges, Mike Lewis (11.93), Andre Drummond (active, 11.91), Rudy Gobert (active, 11.68), Ira Harge (11.60), Swen Nater (11.55), Walter Dukes (11.25), and Johnny "Red" Kerr (11.15). You know how many players exist who recorded over 10,000 rebounds in less than 1,000 games? 14 players *total*, with Bridges being 10th (two are active), which actually is more than David Robinson in less games. 209 players at the height of 6'6 or shorter have gotten 10,000 points, but how many players at that height or shorter had 10,000 rebounds? Just three: Bridges, Charles Barkley (12,546) and Elgin Baylor (11,463). But Bridges had what you would call a great basketball life, and I suppose that is enough for most to aspire for.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Bill Bridges to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo source: https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/2011/cid/2986887/1968-69-Topps-Test-16-Bill-Bridges

*Speaking of Unsung Hall of Famers...

The Unsung – Larry Centers.

Larry Eugene Centers (born June 1, 1968)

Played for: Phoenix / Arizona Cardinals (1990–1998), Washington Redskins (1999–2000), Buffalo Bills (2001–2002), New England Patriots (2003)

Larry Centers [Stats on Pro-Football Reference] - FB

2,188 rushing yards, 3.6 yards per carry, 14 rushing touchdowns

827 receptions for 6,797 yards and 28 receiving touchdowns

 

Super Bowl champion (XXXVIII)

First-team All-Pro (1996)

3× Pro Bowl (1995, 1996, 2001)

You might be wondering: who? In fairness, there are a few odds and ends that are surprising in the road to spotlighting Centers, who basically is the pinnacle of an unsung storybook player. Centers was born and raised in Texas, playing football on and off all the way to high school and found himself with a scholarship to Stephen F. Austin State University. He broke his finger in his freshman year but used the time to play scout team running back and special teams. An injury to the starter in his sophomore year gave him the chance to play, where he had numerous 100+ yard rushing games. He became a dual threat in receptions and rushing yards in his next two seasons, setting a school record for rushing yards in his final year, with the team even making the NCAA Division I-AA Championship Game, narrowly losing to Georgia Southern. In 1990, he was drafted in the fifth round of the NFL draft by the Phoenix Cardinals.

In his first two seasons in the NFL, the Cardinals (as coached by Joe Bugel) saw him as nothing more than a third-down back at 6'0 and 225 pounds. In his first season of 1990, he returned kicks (16, for 272 yards). He caught his first pass in the Week 10 game of the 1991 season against Dallas, catching four passes for 28 yards from Tom Tupa (yes, really) in the loss. He caught 19 passes that year for 176 yards with 14 carries. He was given more chances to catch in 1992, catching 50 of 59 targeted balls for 417 yards (with his first touchdown coming against Washington in Week 4) while rushing 37 times.  From 1994 to 1997, Centers ran 100+ times in three of those four seasons, which, well, it didn't go very far (never averaging more than 3.7 yard per carry), but he did have more time catching the ball. In 1995, he caught 101 passes for 962 yards for 9.5 yards per catch (all of which were career-highs) for two touchdowns.  In his one All-Pro season in 1996, he caught 99 passes for 766 yards with a career high seven touchdowns while running a peak 116 times for 425 yards; Centers had the only multi-receiving TD game in Week 9, catching six passes for 58 yards and two scores. In his final season with Arizona in 1998, he had his first winning season on the heels of lessened play. He caught 69 passes on 94 targets for 559 yards with two touchdowns. The Cardinals, bolstered by a weak schedule, finished 9-7 for a playoff spot. Playing against the Dallas Cowboys for his first playoff game, Centers ran three times for 5 yards with three catches for 16 yards, but he did score a touchdown in the eventual 20-7 win, the first and only playoff win for the Cardinals in the timespan of 1948-2007.

To put it lightly, Centers was on a handful of bad teams in Arizona. Centers had the type of teams from 1990 to 1998 that employed guys at quarterback that either were past their prime, had no prime at all or a different factor altogether: Tupa, Timm Rosenbach, Stan Gelbaugh, Chris Chandler, Steve Beuerlein, Jay Schroeder, Jim McMahon, Dave Krieg, Boomer Esiason, Kent Graham, and Jake Plummer (the coaching, meanwhile, went from Bugel to Buddy Ryan to Vince Tobin). For all of his contributions, the Cardinals decided to release him in June 1999, with one Arizona outlet calling him the "heart and soul" of the team. He signed with Washington in 1999 and caught 69 passes for 544 yards, with his one noted catch being against San Francisco on Week 16 that gave them the win in overtime and clinched the division for the first time in seven years. He caught ten passes for 69 yards in the playoff loss to Tampa Bay.  He caught 69 passes in his final season with Washington in 2000 before becoming a free agent. He signed with the Buffalo Bills and made the Pro Bowl that year with 80 catches and 620 yards that saw him reach history with receiving yards for a running back to pass Ronnie Harmon to be the second back with 6,000 receiving yards (only one has reached the mark since Centers with Marshall Faulk, who set the record with 6875 prior to retiring in 2005). He closed his tenure in Buffalo in 2002 with 43 receptions to get to 800 for a career. Now 35, he signed with New England for 2003 and was troubled by knee problems that saw him released and later re-signed by the team, much to his good fortune.  In three playoff games, he caught two passes on five total targets, but it ultimately didn't matter, because the Patriots ended up winning Super Bowl XXXVIII on a last-second field goal that meant that Centers could retire a winner.

Did you know that in the year 2000, the all-time list for receptions in the history of the Cardinals, one of the oldest franchises in the NFL, had Centers on top of the list? That's correct, Centers topped the list with 535 receptions, which was more than famed names such as Roy Green (522) and Hall of Fame player Jackie Smith (480). Sure, he was eventually passed by Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, but still, well. I would unironically advocate for him to be inducted into the Cardinals Ring of Honor. For a moment in time, Centers was actually in the pantheon of guys who could catch the ball in the NFL, ranking 7th for all players in receptions with 827 when he retired in 2003, which was actually more receptions than, say, Steve Largent (819), James Lofton (764). Obviously, this isn't a Hall of Fame pitch, but did you know that only three players had more receptions from 1990 to 2003 than Centers? Centers still ranks as the all-time leader for receptions for a running back/full-back. He never had a 1,000-yard rushing or receiving season or topped 10 total touchdowns in any season or even have 10,000 all-purpose yards (9,659), but when it comes to guys who fit the mold of cultivating a worthwhile career as a sparkplug that got what he wanted out of football, I would say that's rewarding enough. I'll close it out with a quote from Centers from 2003 prior to the Super Bowl:

"If I'd sat down and written a script, I couldn't have made it more perfect. You know, I thought about retiring after the Bills released me, but deep down inside I felt I had unfinished business. Now I'm here this week to finish it. I don't have the words to explain how exciting this is. I wish I could slow the clock down and savor the moment even more. If it turns out that this is it, if I quit after Sunday, I'll be as proud of my career as any player who ever lived."

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Larry Centers to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo source: 1996 Playoff Contenders #18 Larry Centers | Trading Card Database

The Unsung – Jimmy Jones.

James Jones (born January 1, 1945)

Played for: New Orleans Buccaneers / Memphis Pros (1967–1971), Utah Stars (1971–1974), 

Washington Bullets (1974–1977)

Jimmy Jones (Basketball Reference [Player] — Point guard / shooting guard (PG/SG)

11,366 points (16.3 ppg), 2,930 rebounds (4.6 rpg), 3,069 assists (4.5 apg)

 

6× ABA All-Star (1968–1971, 1973, 1974)

3× All-ABA First Team (1969, 1973, 1974)

ABA All-Rookie First Team (1968)

ABA All-Time Team

Did I mention that I have an interest in the American Basketball Association? Before the NBA was a 30-team (32 in the future?) juggernaut in the current day that spanned from coast to coast, the league was composed of 12 teams, barely made it to the West Coast, and it didn't even have a 3-point line. With the dawn of the ABA in the 1967-68 season (as developed by several people such as Dennis Murphy), now there were 11 teams for players to get a chance to play pro basketball, shooting for threes within a 30-second shot clock for 78 games. And that's where Jimmy Jones comes into play. Born in Tallulah, Louisiana, he played at Grambling State University after attending McCall High. According to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Jones averaged 25 points/6 rebounds per game in high school and then averaged 20 points/8 rebounds at Grambling State, which is pretty neat for the 1960s. He won SWAC titles in 1964, 1966, 1967 in 104 games.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the second round of the 1967 draft. However, he chose the New Orleans Buccaneers, apparently doing so (as quoted in Bob Kuska's Balls of Confusion book from 2024) for a three-year contract of $75,000 and a new car. In his first game for New Orleans, he scored 27 points in a 120-112 win over the Houston Mavericks on October 19. He had his first 30-point game two days later against the Indiana Pacers with 35. 70 of his 78 games would see him score at least ten points. Rebound totals are not complete for every game, but he had seven games with a double-double in points and rebounds. In total, he had 1,464 points in 78 games. He shot 46.7% from the field (22.2 percent from the three-line and 70.9 percent from the free-throw line) with 18.8 points per game and got an All-Star Game selection. In the playoffs, the Bucs were the Western Division champion in a two-division format. In the eight-team playoffs, the Bucs went all the way to the ABA Finals, with Jones averaging 20ppg in the first round and 24 ppg in the second round (as New Orleans went 8-2). They met the Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pipers in the Finals. Jones would average 21.6 points as the series went the full seven games, with Jones hitting the go-ahead shot in Game 3. With the Bucs leading 3-2 in the series and having a chance to win at home in Game 6, Jones had 20 points in a 118-112 loss and 19 in the 122-113 Game 7 loss. It was one of only two times Jones played in a championship series (and for the city of New Orleans, they didn't play for a pro championship again until 2010). He averaged 22 points and six rebounds in the playoffs with 45.9 percent shooting.

His 1968-69 season was quite special. He scored 2,050 points in 77 games to join Larry Jones as the first 2,000 point scorers in league history. It included a 48-point game against the future ABA champion Oakland Oaks on December 9. He shot a league high 764 times while leading the league in field goal percentage at 53.5%. It may interest you to know that in New Orleans basketball history, only two times has a player had 2,000 points in a pro season: Anthony Davis (2,099 [2016-17]) and...Anthony Davis (2,110 [2017-18]). He finished 4th in MVP voting that year to Mel Daniels (an underrated player if there ever was one, who averaged 24.0 ppg/16.5 rebounds per game)

He finished 9th the following year while averaging 20.7 points per game and made the All-Star Game. When the team moved to Memphis in 1970, he had 19.6 points per game before moving over to Utah, which had won the 1971 championship with legends such as Zelmo Beaty and Willie Wise and Ron Boone. Jones and his 15.5 points per game that year didn't get him an All-Star bid.  His 7733 total points in his first five seasons actually ranks as 80th best for all players in their first five years. He came back to form with 16.7 points per game in 80 games of play in 1972-73. The 1973-74 season saw him join the 10,000-point club for a career (one of five with Louie Dampier, Mel Daniels, Donnie Freeman, Roger Brown), all done before being 30 years old. A prideful guard, here is perhaps the best quote from Jones to use about his thoughts about his play in 1974: 

"I know my assets and liabilities. Like I don’t feel I’m in the top four defensive guard in the league. You’ve got guys like Mike Gale (New York), Al Smith (Denver), Fatty Taylor (Virginia), and Ted McClain (Carolina), who I feel are the top defensive guards. And I don’t feel that I’m the overpowering-type guard either.

But whenever I have the height advantage on another guard, I figure I can take advantage of him. It seems like it’s a lot harder to post guys the last two years. Teams are playing tougher defense and trying to help out more. We try to clear out a side, like we do in our guard ‘41’ play, and get into a good shooting area. You really don’t have to worry about posting them or jockeying for a layup. Any time you shoot a 15-footer on them, it’s like shooting a layup in the pros."

He played 83 games and scored 16.8 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and made his sixth and final All-Star Game. He led the league with 88.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line while playing over 35 minutes a game for the seventh straight year. He logged in heavy minutes for the playoffs, which saw the Western Division champion fight off San Diego (six games) and Indiana (seven games, where they won Game 7 after being up 3-0) to make the Finals against the Eastern Division champion Nets. The injuries to Zelmo Beaty (who missed the opening two games) and blown leads in Game 1 and 3 proved too much as the Nets won in five games. Wanting money and not being that big on Utah, he corralled his way onto the Washington Bullets in 1974. He averaged 19 minutes with 7 points a game on a team where Kevin Porter got heavy minutes at point guard but won 60 games. Jones played an average of 19 minutes with 6 points in the playoff run before Game 4 of the Conference Finals, where he tore ligaments in his right knee that required surgery (as for the Bullets, they were upset in the Finals by the Golden State Warriors)

 The following year saw him make appearance in 64 games with an average of 17.7 minutes played and 5.9 points scored. In his final playoff run in 1976, he got 20 minutes a game in the seven-game series against Cleveland...where they were upset by the Cavaliers in the famed "Miracle at Richfield" (Cleveland had so few miracles that winning *one* playoff series had a nickname, this was the Conference semifinals).  Jones played three games of the 1976-77 season before retiring, with his knees still bothering him. As of 2026, Jones is still active as an Uber driver and marketing for Amway*. As of this year, the NBA foolishly doesn't even recognize the statistics of the ABA, but you can check the stats from Basketball Reference like a winner. I can't make a case based on longevity, but I will present the fact that only four players made the All-Star Game six times in the ABA era, which went long enough to be considered its own era in my book: Mel Daniels, Louie Dampier, Dan Issel, and Jones. You've got one ESPN guy considering Jones the most deserving ABA candidate remaining, at least. The one mark of recognition for Jones came in 1997, when the 30th anniversary of the ABA led to 30 players being named to an All-Time Team. 27 of the 50 voters put Jones on that team. Maybe he won't make the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but Jones deserves to have a wider profile to actually see who he was beyond the usual tales people get from the ABA.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Jimmy Jones to the Hall.

N O T E S

*It should be mentioned that the NBA refuses to pay players like Jones more than the small pension that they receive for playing in the NBA. The league had come to an agreement in 2022 with less fortunate former ABA players but not players such as Jones, as seen here: A handful of ex-ABA players hope for a last-second financial long shot from the NBA - The Athletic

*Interview with Jones

The Unsung — Tom Chambers.

Thomas Doane Chambers (born June 21, 1959)

Played for: San Diego Clippers (1981–1983), Seattle SuperSonics (1983–1988), 

Phoenix Suns (1988–1993), Utah Jazz (1993–1995), Maccabi Tel Aviv (1995–1996), 

Charlotte Hornets (1997), Philadelphia 76ers (1997)

Tom Chambers (Basketball Reference [Player] — Power forward (PF)

20,049 points (18.1 per game), 6,703 rebounds (6.1 per game), 2,283 assists (2.1 per game) in 1,107 games

 

4× NBA All-Star (1987, 1989–1991) 

2× All-NBA Second Team (1989, 1990)

Israeli League champion (1996)

Sure, why not feature a basketball case? Chambers was born in Ogden, Utah and basically became a promising prospect in the blink of an eye. Sure, he played as a decent guard at 6'2 in his sophomore year of high school...and then he grew up to a frame of 6'9 in the span of six months (interestingly, he is listed as 6'10 in the NBA, so he rose even a bit more then). He attended Aurora Central for his junior year before having to re-locate due to his dad getting a job that saw him attend his senior year at Fairview in Colorado, where he led the state in scoring. In his final game for Fairview, he set a big school state tournament record of 50 points and 22 rebounds. Chambers decided to attend Utah over BYU and gradually rose to key-line starter by his sophomore year. In his last three seasons, he earned WAC honors, being named to the Second-team in 1979 & 1980 before being named to the First-team in 1981. In June of that year, he was selected in the NBA draft as the 8th pick of the first round by the San Diego Clippers. Noted players of the draft included Mark Aguirre for the Mavericks at #1, Isiah Thomas at #2 for Detroit as the only Hall of Fame selection that year, Buck Williams at #3 for New Jersey while Chambers was picked in-between Steve Johnson and Rolando Blackman.*

In his first game as a player in the NBA on Halloween night in 1981 against the Houston Rockets, he played 24 minutes and logged in 13 points. It didn't take him long to record some firsts, with back-to-back games seeing him do the following: his first double-double came with 21 points and 11 rebounds on November 12 versus Portland while his first 30-point game came two days later with 36 points against Indiana. Playing 81 games with 58 starts, Chambers logged 17.2 points per game with 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists on a field goal percentage of 52.5%. The following year saw him start 81 games and average 17.6 points per game while shooting 47.2% from the field with 6.6 rebounds per game. The Clippers in those two years won a combined total of 42 games under the ownership of noted pervert/loser Donald Sterling. At any rate, Clippers had Terry Cummings (drafted in 1982) looking pretty good at power forward, which saw him win Rookie of the Year in 1983 (one quote said that Chambers was a key part of the benefits reaped by Cummings, as other teams had to use their big forwards for Chambers). They proceeded to trade Chambers and Al Wood in August 1983 to the Seattle SuperSonics that saw the Clippers get James Donaldson, Greg Keiser, Mark Radford and two draft picks. None of the players acquired by the Clippers stayed with the team past 1985 (incidentally, Cummings was traded in 1984 by the Clippers* to the Bucks).

In his first year with Seattle in the 1983-84 season, he played in all 82 games and averaged 18.1 points per game on 49.9% shooting with 6.5 rebounds per game. He got a taste of playoff action for the first time, where he had an average of 13 points in the five-game series against Dallas*. Chambers set a new high in points per game for the 1984-85 season with 21.5 on 60 starts and 81 total appearances with 48.3% shooting. After a year plagued by injury, Chambers rebounded in 1986 with back-to-back seasons of playing all 82 games, which saw him selected to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game. Chambers had his first bite of lengthy playoff action that year when he averaged 23 points a game as the Sonics lost to the Lakers in the Conference Finals. In his first seven seasons as a player, he had scored 10,811 total points, which actually was 10th most for players in that timespan behind legend such as Alex English and Larry Bird. The summer of 1988 would see his career reach a new height. A new collective bargaining agreement saw players with at least seven years and two NBA contracts played the classification of "unrestricted free agent" that could sign anywhere, as opposed to accepting a qualifying offer or, well, being traded (for those curious, you could get offers, but teams had the "right of first refusal" to match an offer). In July of that year, he was contacted by the Phoenix Suns and found a willing team to play for to the tune of five years and $9 million as the first high-profile unrestricted free agent (one news source reported he had made $950,000 in his last year with Seattle).

In his first seven years, he averaged 15 shots a game. In his first season with Phoenix, he shot over 20 times a game with future Hall of Fame contributor Cotton FitzSimmons as a coach and players such as Kevin Johnson and Jeff Hornacek leading the way. He proceeded to average 25.7 points per game on 47 percent shooting in 81 appearances for the Suns. He averaged 26 points a game for the team in the playoffs that saw them lose to the Lakers in the Conference Finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team for the first of two straight seasons. He had his peak in points per game in 1989-90 with 27.2 per game (81 played), which included a franchise record (passed in 2017) 60 points on March 24, 1990 versus Seattle, doing so on a pulled hamstring. The 1990-91 season saw Kevin Johnson shine the most in scoring over Chambers, who averaged 19.9 points per game (76 games) on 43 percent shooting, although he made the All-Star Game for the fourth time. In the first ten seasons that Chambers played from 1981 to 1991, he was sixth in points for all players with 16,608, sandwiched between a few Hall of Famers such as English (leading with 19,967) and Isiah Thomas (15,130 at 10th)*. In point of fact, his point total for his first ten seasons is still in the top 40 of all players in 2026. He played in 69 games in 1991 and had 16.3 points per game before the arrival of Charles Barkley in the 1992-93 season saw Chambers play off the bench to the tune of 12.2 points per game under new head coach Paul Westphal. The Suns made it all the way to the NBA Finals and Chambers played off the bench for all but one game, which saw highs as 18 points in each of the first two games versus the Lakers and five games of zero points (in one interview months later, he said he "looked awful"). His one start was in Game 7 of the Conference Finals versus Seattle, where he had 17 points in 29 minutes as the Suns won 123-110 to reach their first Finals in nearly 20 years. In the Finals versus Chicago, Chambers played 20 minutes in each of Games 2-4 and played a key role in Game 3 by hitting the tying lay-up to force double OT in a game the Suns won in triple overtime. He had 12 points in Game 6, which saw the Suns lose on a three-pointer late as Chicago won their third straight title.

The Suns did not pick up the option year on his contract (as added by Chambers while deferring money to help them try to sign Danny Ainge). He soon signed with Utah to play off the bench with their tandem of stars in Karl Malone and John Stockton*. He made appearances in 161 combined games over two seasons with the Jazz, with his most noted moment coming on April 15, 1995 when he scored 15 points against the Clippers to reach the 20,000 point club as the 24th player to do so.* In 1995, Chambers took a detour to play for one season for $500,000 for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel of the Israeli Super League and the FIBA EuroLeague (in contrast, he made nearly $2 million with his Jazz tenure). He had solid enough stats in Super League as Chambers was part of a champion team for the only time (meanwhile, in the EuroLeague, Dominique Wilkins led Panathinaikos to the title). He returned to the NBA in 1996, now a 37-year old. He played 12 games for Charlotte before being waived. He played one further game on November 26, 1997 for Philadelphia, scoring six points in nine minutes and that was it. 2021 saw him make the finalist list for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but he did not make it. Chambers and Antawn Jamison (who by sheer coincidence, also played 16 seasons like Chambers) are the only eligible 20,000 point scorers not in the Hall (Joe Johnson, retired recently in 2022, will be around there, but if Amar'e Stoudemire can get in the Hall, screw it, why not Johnson too?). From 1981 to 1998, eight players had 20,000 points: Jordan, Malone, Wilkins, Olajuwon, Barkley, Drexler, Ewing...and Chambers. In a tough era, Chambers still found a way to stand out as a solid player, and he shouldn't be left out of the Hall.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Tom Chambers to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo source: 1989-90 Wasatch Basketball All-Stars (unlicensed) Trading Card Database

*Speaking of UHOF candidates, Rolando Blackman and Mark Aguirre. We shall see.

*The only awesome thing Adam Silver did is banning Donald Sterling from the NBA. Never forget that David Stern was too gutless to act against that dogshit owner for generally being terrible in every aspect of the game. Granted, it took a racist tape for Sterling to go down, but, hey, cool to ban that guy. 

*Yes, for a considerable amount of time, the First Round was only best-of-five. Incidentally, Chambers was a small part of an odd moment of Game 5 - called "Moody Madness" by Maverick fans. With a one point lead, the Mavericks tried to not screw up the inbound with one second to play by bouncing the ball off Chambers at mid-court but he actually caught the ball and proceeded to miss the shot. Somehow, the clock never actually started on the play and the referees somehow ruled that Seattle would have the inbound attempt. They did not get the right inbound and the Mavericks won the game, their first playoff series victory in team history.

*Aguirre was in fifth with 16,691 and Blackman had 15,269. See, Unsung HOF potential right there.

*Hey John Stockton, have hundreds of athletes died because of the COVID-19 vaccine? 

*I forgot for a moment that some news outlets stupidly didn't count ABA stats for point totals. Chambers was the 20th player with 200000 *NBA only* points but was 24th when counting the ABA stats for Julius Erving, Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore, and Rick Barry. Apologies.

Good ol' links about Chambers:

5 Questions with former U. of U. and NBA star Tom Chambers – Deseret News

"Today's NBA, are you kidding me, they can't touch me" - Tom Chambers on why defenses couldn’t handle him in this era - Basketball Network

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