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)
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
*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:
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