One fan's campaign for Tom Chambers to enter the B

I'd like to add that my channel is non monetized. Nothing on that channel is monetized. I do it because I love doing it. It's never been about me. I never wanted to do this to make money or to get recognition for myself. It's all about my love of the game and sharing what I saw in my favorite player who was Tom Chambers and hoping I can

move the needle just a bit by sharing what I saw in him as a player and just be an advocate for him to be in that conversation because I think he deserves to be in that conversation as one of the game's greats and certainly as a candidate for the Hall of Fame. Yeah, you guys are all the stars are aligned and all the muscles fall at

the right time and I was able to get off the ground and throw one damn. I was saving that as a surprise for you. And now introducing your host for in all airness and a Ryan. Welcome to episode 128. Thanks for joining me. Today I'm very happy to welcome Jeff Wells. Jeff is a Tom Chambers Superfan. This is a super fun conversation about Jeff's excellent YouTube

channel T.C.24. Devoted to showcasing Tom's fantastic career and advocating his worthiness for the nice Smith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. You'll soon realise Jeff's importance in relation to Tom Chambers being named a first-time nominee and candidate for the Hoop Halls class of 2022. Our conversation covers the origin story of Jeff's NBA fandom and the unique details behind his fascination with Tom Chambers. We talk about his

YouTube channel and do a deep dive into the process behind the tremendous features that he produces. This episode is filled with information on Tom's journey from high school through to the NBA. You'll also hear some snippets of audio from Jeff's videos that demonstrate the care and precision that he has. He takes with each upload. It's a really fun and informative conversation. You can subscribe to Jeff's

channel by searching T.C.24 on YouTube. Show notes for this episode and access to a huge archive of past episodes are available at inallannis.com. Now onto the show. My guest today has an excellent fan run in the show. You are welcome. Your YouTube channel, which we'll talk about as this conversation unfolds, is fantastic and deserves many more subscribers than it already has. Before we even get to

that, the basketball hall hall of Fame. Recently announced the list of eligible candidates for the class of 2022, including high profile first-time nominee, the A4 mentioned Tom Chambers. What was your reaction to first hearing that news? Oh, I was excited. It was something that I'd been working very hard for for a number of years now. You may not know because we haven't chatted about this, but

I was the person who nominated T.C. Tom Chambers for the Hall of Fame. This is something that I didn't think it was possible, but reaching out to the Hall of Fame and using my channel as credentials, they were happy to take my nomination. They were great to work with. They were open to allowing me to do a short write-up on Tom Chambers' career, offering some insights

on him as a player and adding it to the portfolio that they put together for the committee. So I thought that was super cool. Oh, that's fantastic. I had no idea. I asked around a handful of individuals who were in the basketball or sports community, how that nomination process works, and interestingly, it was Pete Crowatta who had written the piece on me for fan-sided, who gave

me some insight that I should use the credentials of my T.C. 24 channel as a media credential, and contact the Hall of Fame and try to get in touch with the right people there. See if I can go through with the nomination. So I followed that advice. I ended up making a few calls. Didn't hear back, but I was persistent and eventually called and got to

the right person and left a voicemail. And within a day, I got a call back, and that opened up the floodgates of communication. It was a pretty quick and seamless process. And I was really taken aback by how receptive they were to having me a fan nominate a former player to the Hall of Fame. That is so good to hear. Pete is a few people. He's

a guest of the podcast. He wrote an excellent book, Avid on Audible, that I'm listening to at the moment, which is called From Hang Time to Primetime, Business Entertainment and the Birth of the Modern Day NBA. So you look forward to having Pete on it. I did read that article that appeared in fan-sided. On lines, I'll link to that in the show notes. To Tom Chombas

family, know that the fact that he has been nominated came about through your doing. This was something that was entirely on my own initiative. And once it became confirmed that the nomination was accepted, that's when I messaged Tom to let him know that basketball Hall of Fame had accepted my nomination for him. And I'm super, super excited about this. And he was too, obviously. I know

that you're in contact with one of his seven children, Skala. How did Skala feel hearing this news? I have had contact with Skala and Tom, of course. But I keep the communications with both of them. Very professional and to the point. So I haven't had much interaction with either of them. I do know that Tom's colleague, Tom Leander, who is a co-host on their son's broadcast,

local broadcast in Arizona. Tom Leander was aware because he reached out to me and had expressed excitement about this. For me as a fan, it's like a dream. It's so cool that I watched Tom Chombas play for a number of years as a professional player, the countless NBA games. He influenced me through his playing. He influenced me as a basketball player and as somebody I looked

up to. And through the advent of the internet, here I am 25, 30 years later, I'm able to exert my influence as a fan. And what I saw in him and make an impact. And I just think that that turn of events through technology is super cool. It's great to hear you talk about this and the story behind it. Where of a similar age you grew

up in California as a fan of the LA like is. How did Tom Chombas then first appear on your radar and what made you focus primarily on him in the decades that followed? That's a good question. I did grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s. And I was a teenager at the time. And I was tall for my age as well as athletic. And I

took an interest in basketball. And this was the time of the prime time showtime Lakers. They were in their heat of their rivalry with the 76ers and the Celtics. And I took a love of the showtime Lakers. I watched as many games as I could get on the local Lakers channel here. So I got to see a lot of teams. I was a big time, Magic

Johnson, James Worthy, Karim, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambez, big time fan of theirs. But I got to see a lot of the West Coast teams frequently because Lakers and Pacific Division and one of the teams was the Seattle Supersonics. And I had noticed more in passing that the Supersonics had a super tall. Athletic forward Tom Chambers. And I was impressed with his dunking, his athleticism. He was

a highly active player that could take the shot from the outside as far away as the three pointer. But also was very quick on the drive and could score with either hand. And that was impressive to me. Although I was rooting against him and the Sonics. That was kind of the early introduction to Chambers. And when he came on my radar screen as a fan of

the game. But what was the most important thing that I was going to do was to get to the top of the game. And really solidified that was a chance turn of events. The local Los Angeles Lakers radio station KLC 570 AM, which broadcasted all the Lakers games. Occasionally had a fan trivia question. So it'd be broadcast when say the game went to intermission. If you

called in and got through with the correct answer, you would win Lakers tickets. So there was some trivia question that came on. I picked the phone. Called in. They took my call. I answered the question correctly. And I was sent two tickets to see the Los Angeles Lakers play the Seattle Super Sonics. And my dad took me to that game. It's one of these things that

you look back on. It's almost like the roads were leading to this. But I saw Tom Chambers play in person. And I was just really impressed. Through down a monster to hand dunk in the game was shooting from the outside driving for left. And right given the Lakers a hard time. I said to myself, this guy is really good. That's the kind of player I'd want

to be. I could see myself in him a bit. And that was really where he started to become my favorite player. The guy that I followed the most was that game. And that chance event of winning those tickets. Incredible. You actually remember both the trivia question was or am I testing your memory banks too much. You might be testing my memory bank. But this is 35

plus years ago as a teenager. It was super cool to have my name announced on the radio. But it led me to become a lifelong fan of an opposing player. That's led me on this journey to have this conversation with you today. It's almost like a butterfly effect where some small chance event can have significant repercussions down the road. And that was the first Lakers game

I ever attended in person. Oh wow. Recording NBA games on video tape back in the 1980s and 90s. We had very limited access to NBA on TV here in Australia. But anything that did appear from probably 1989 onwards. I recorded everything I can get my hands on and kept it to this day. Most of my recordings are with a great friend of mine Todd who is

in Melbourne. What's your history there, Jeff? I also did the VHS recording of the games and would watch them again and again later and watch highlights of them to see my favorite player or my favorite plays from the game. So I am asked a small collection of VHS tapes and some over the years they get accidentally recorded over but I still preserved enough which gave me

a collection that I would eventually bring to bear on the channel. But while we're on this subject of recording VHS games. Some of the games that are on the channel were from my own collection that I had them digitally transferred but I would have to say that the one tape that stands out more than any other in my entire collection was the 1987 NBA All-Star game.

Where of course Tom Chambers was the MVP of the game. I recorded that game in its entirety and have that tape well preserved and it's a tape I have cherished and have watched countless times. I recorded that game over the years. The 1987 All-Star game which I recently uploaded to my channel in its entirety is a direct copy from that original master tape. It was an

error that I don't think today's generation broadcast on TV and if you wanted to see it again you had to have a VCR player and a tape ready to go and then save it. Now that non-in-87 NBA All-Star game was held on February the 8th and it was at Seattle's King Dome of all places. Now Tom had 34,000 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals

in just 29 minutes of action and the West held on for a 154 to 149 victory in overtime. He was named the All-Star game MVP. It was an incredible performance especially given the fact that Tom was named as Ralph Samson's replacement. Now the starting line up for the Western Conference. Selected to start by the fans but unable to be here today due to injury. The Houston

Rockets Ralph Samson starting in his place and making his first All-Star appearance. The first little forward from the home town Seattle's Super Sonics. Tom Chambers! I do have a copy of a Sonic's game. I think it was the Sonic's versus the Nets. This was maybe a month or so out from the 1987 All-Star game. The broadcasters for that game were commenting on Tom being a All-Star

candidate remarking that the game was made for players like Tom Chambers. I agree with that assessment. But what I think really in the game was a lot of fun. I think Tom Chambers was able Tom Chambers to have such a strong All-Star game was his pairing with Magic Johnson. We saw just how difficult it was for the East to match up with Tom and Magic when

they did the pick and rolls and when Magic was feeding Tom on the break. We saw more of that with Tom Chambers and Kevin Johnson and Phoenix and how effective that was. But to do that in an All-Star game, the East had little answer for that. It was something that for me as a fan was extremely exciting to watch to this day that game remains my

favorite game of all time. When that game was over, I felt like I just got off a roller coaster ride. Tom, you can pick up the trophy if you want. It's yours. Did you ever think in your wildest dreams that this would happen in your home city? I never ever thought it would happen. This is something that you dream about and dreams are made of and

I can't believe it. I'm just so grateful today. It's super. I appreciate this opportunity and I'm glad Rolano hit those pre-throws. Well deserved congratulations. How did it feel to watch your favorite player, the pro at Tom Chambers, Magic Johnson and Tom Chambers playing together on the same time? Oh, super exciting. I was a huge fan of Magic at the time as well. So to see those

two pair up was a dream come true. And obviously it's an All-Star game. So the attention on this was so much greater. And it made me wonder over the years how Tom Chambers career could have played out if he teamed with Magic Johnson in the Lakers system maybe earlier on in his career. That was one of those games that can trigger those what if thoughts. It's

a mouth ordering proposition. Another one of the interesting videos that you've uploaded on your channel is from 1987. It's the second mid-summer. Summer nights Magic All-Star event held at the Great Western Forum in LA. How did you obtain that particular game? It's fantastic quality. The footage is excellent. Two and a half hours in length. And our ladies and gentlemen live from the fabulous forum. The stars

of the NBA return as prime ticket presents a mid-summer nights. Magic number two. That's a game I had been searching for for a number of years and through the network of fellow fans I was able to discover. Someone who had it in their collection and was able to obtain a really nice clean digital copy of it. That's a game that had a rare appearance of Tom

Chambers in a summer pro exhibition game. Generally he did not participate in those. This is coming off of his 87 All-Star Game MVP. And of course the connection with Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson apparently reached out to Tom Chambers to invite him to play and Tom accepted. Such a fun game. It's a fantastic game to watch. It's high scoring. It's less defense than a regular All-Star game.

The players are having fun and it was super cool to see Bill Russell be the coach of Tom's blue team. It was Elgin Baylor who is the coach of Magic Johnson's white team. And to see those players interacting it's so much fun to see that as a fan. Unusual combinations as well. So there was a couple instances in that game where there was a fast break.

You've got Dominique running one wing and Tom running the other wing. One can only wonder what it would have been like to have Isaiah. Isaiah was the point guard neck game and those two pair on a regular basis. That would have been incredible. What makes it so great is when, particularly some of the rare videos you've been sharing on your channel start to appear. You say

things that unless you are actually there at the game. They've barely ever been seen again. And that's what's so important about the. The fact that you have this channel set up and obviously advocating for Tom Chimbers to get into the hall of fame. So it's fantastic stuff that you're doing. Thank you. I do have a number of tapes in my collection that probably have not been

seen since their original broadcast or being in Los Angeles. We have two basketball teams. So I was able to get games recorded playing against either the sonics or the sons via the LA Lakers and LA Clippers. So that was an advantage for me. I did not have cable television during the 1980s. So I was limited to broadcast games only going back to what you say. It

allowed for me to really appreciate the times that I did have a game on TV to record it and save it and appreciate it for what it was rather than having say today's internet where I can instantaneously watch a number of games or highlights at a few strokes of the keyboard. It just was something that I cherish. Yes, more and appreciated more over the years. How

did you go about obtaining some of the footage that you have. So particularly like cable TV telecast of the 1980s, if you didn't have access to cable we have relying on. Mail tape trading. Like I used to do back in the 1990s sending videos and eventually DVDs anywhere across the world with other collectors. Yes. That was primarily the route that I took once it became apparent

that there were others who had VHS games that had transferred them either to her. some digital medium and could trade them. So I obviously had a collection of games that had not been in the trade community if you want to call it that. So it enabled me to acquire games and for other traders to acquire games from my collection. I've even ordered games as far away

as Australia and Europe from both traders as well as a company called Pontel out of Europe. They have a lot of classic games that they're authorized to. I've ordered games through Pontel. My best suppliers have tended to come from Serbia or some just fanatical NBA fans and collectors there. I've been able to expand my game collection over the years and through that acquired some rare games

and very rare material as well. Your YouTube channel began according to the stats here. I'm looking at on YouTube in August of 2006. And the video that you have there. I just got the most views, which is closing in on almost two million incredibly is of Tom's arguably most famous dunk. He's incredible GM over Mark Jackson when Tom was a member of the Fennec Sons. Did

that sort of give you the idea that it might be worth using your YouTube channel to be more of a advocacy for chambers to get into the whole of fame. Well, the channel was started. I don't think YouTube was not even a year old when that first handful of videos went up. And I didn't even know. I didn't know video editing back then. I took a

few of my VHS tapes over to a buddy of mine's house and he did video editing. I just asked him, Hey, can you copy a few clips from these VHS tapes and convert them to digital and upload them to YouTube. So he obligingly did the work for me and put them up on YouTube. I didn't think much of it. YouTube was still a novelty at the

time. But I noticed within a few minutes. A few days that video of Tom Chambers dunking over Mark Jackson and already received a few thousand views. And that was like, wow. Okay. This is pretty cool. I'm sharing something of my favorite player and other people are seeing it. And it got me excited. But my roadblock from doing more back then is that I knew nothing about

video editing. Nothing. All those game clips that were put up on the channel from about two years ago. 2006, maybe to 2008. There's just a handful was all through a friend of mine who knew video editing. And things change. I kind of lost interest in putting things up there. I was heavily involved with my career work and things like that. I knew in the back of

my mind one day I would come back to this. One day I was going to come back to this and do something with it. All these years had gone by from about 2008, 2009. I think it was early. 2018. It was the 2018 Hall of Fame nominees. I think I was reading them online somewhere, maybe NBA.com. And I immediately scanned it to see if Tom Chambers

had been nominated. I was at a point in my life in 2018 where I was working less hours. I had a lot more free time. I was in a transition to find something new. Some other talent I can add to my resume and my abilities. And I thought to myself, this is it. This is the perfect opportunity. I always said to myself, I would come back

to this channel and make an ultimate highlight reel of Tom Chambers. Now is the time to do it. Let's pull the trigger. So I started learning how to on my own first playing around with I movie on my laptop. The I movie for Apple comes with the Apple laptops. I started tooling around with it just playing around and making some simple videos. I felt like I

was going to be a little bit more focused on the music. I was like, this is something I can competently do. So I decided to buy the Final Cut Pro FCP X and made a test video out of it to get familiar. But I started taking online classes for it. And there's a lot of free tutorials on YouTube. So I started watching those and learning different

aspects of how to put a video together and how to manage digital content. And that really started the ball rolling in my first product of about three months of dedicated work was the Tom Chambers for Hall of Fame video, which came out in June of 2018. That was the first video I ever put together. It was probably a hundred hours of work. But it was a

hundred hours of work and just learning trial by fire. I'm learning how to do it. I made mistakes and try to do it better. And I tried to copy digital content. And I acquired a couple more rare clips from some other. Individuals that had some rare games and put that together. And that got the ball rolling for me. I felt like I was coming back to

my original commitment to myself that I would revisit this. It motivated me to do it further. That is great. Now is that the one that's titled Tom Chambers for Hall of Fame that it says NBA career retrospective new. Yes. That was the first video I ever produced using FCP X. And the video editing skills that I was learning at the time. I did not know at

that time that this would lead to subsequent videos. This was more. I wanted to accomplish a goal of learning how to do video editing. Here is a subject that I really enjoy. And here's something I can see if it moves the needle a bit. And so I put that together released it. As we record this it says three years ago. So got in excess of 25,000

views. And prior to that your previous video appeared to have been 13 years ago. In terms of your recent history. Putting the highlights together doing your voiceovers. And I must add that your voice is silky smooth. It's fantastic to hear on the clips to upload. What process is involved from start to finish in terms of getting together one of these clips that feature Tom at different

stages of his career. Well, thank you. I've been self conscious about my voice. We're each born with our own unique voice. And here I was trying to produce more videos and introducing my voice into the videos. And I was concerned that it would not work. It would not sound right. And even to me when I hear the playbacks I thought it just doesn't sound right. It

doesn't sound like a newscaster's voice. But to hear your feedback on that. And I've gotten feedback from others as well. Maybe feel much more comfortable with adopting more vocals into these videos. But in terms of my voice. And in terms of my work process. What I do is I initially come up with a concept for a video. And it's usually something that strikes me on my

mind. Where do I need to take the channel next? What other aspect of Tom's career should I explore? And do I have available assets or material to work with? Once I commit myself to whatever that concept is. I start bullet pointing. What do I need to have to make this video work? Write it out. And how I want to tell the stories. As things material. As

I go through the ine of the video. Because I have the ability to make videos. I have to be able to use the voice. And I'm able to acquire the assets and put them into the editing suite. I begin writing out some script to help me. Stay on track with the story. This helps me to distill a more complex idea into a video that's only going

to be seven or eight minutes. And narrow it down to information that will be useful to the fan as well as entertaining. And then when I go for the actual record, I try to find a very quiet area. I say, if I see a lot of room, I have a huge monitor and I put the script up on the monitor. I have the video in FCPX

on one side of the screen. The script on the other. And I press play and I just do them in segments. And then if I don't like it, I just rerecord it. It doesn't take that long. A 10 minute video could take me maybe an hour to record. And that's just being patient with setting it up, playing it back, listening. And if I don't like it,

rerecord it. That's generally the process. And that's not it. Really is now one of your videos on your channel is titled Tom Chambers, the high school years. And this was about one year ago. Tom went to Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. What can you tell us about Tom's high school days and perhaps even putting that video together and obtaining footage, which appears in that clip.

NBA legends, their raises are started began in their high school years. Early lenses of the superstars that they would become from their triumphs to set back. Each made a different journey from obscurity to national recognition. Their stories are worth telling. This is Tom Chambers story. This was probably my favorite video to put together because it was so green fields in terms of there was nothing available

online about his high school career. There had been no write ups of any length about his high school career. I could not find it. I was able to find photos of him in high school. So this was a challenge I put to myself to see how much research I can bring to bear to acquire these materials. Using just various resources that I have at my disposal

as well as a good mind for investigating. I was able to come up with some high school photos. I was able to acquire newspaper clippings. But what really put that video over the edge was I found the sun. Tom's former high school coach, whose name is Tom McCracken, who was the head basketball coach at Fairview High School. His son was on Facebook. And I reached out

and messaged his son on Facebook introducing myself on my channel. And if there was any way I could be put in touch with coach Tom McCracken and his son responded to me very, very quickly and was very friendly. And put me in touch with a coach Tom McCracken. I called coach Tom. McCracken and he answered and was super excited to be able to talk about Tom

Chambers and the teams that he coached at Fairview High School in the 1970s. So that really cracked it open. Coach McCracken also sent me several photos, even some old video that I could use for the production of this video and Tom Chambers high school career. I returned all that to him. But he was extremely gracious and generous to allow me to use it and make copies

of it for my work. But that was an exciting video. I do want to correct one thing. Tom Chambers played at Fairview High School in Boulder for his senior season only. He actually went to three high schools, which is very unusual. So given that he became an all-star player in the NBA and attended three different high schools, that's an unusual trajectory for an elite basketball player

to take for anyone. That really is. I'm glad you corrected me there. Thank you because I really appreciate it. I'm glad on basketballreference.com for the information. I just listed obviously his most recent high school that he attended, which was Fairview. Were the other two schools also in Colorado? Yes. So the high school he attended for his junior year was in Aurora, Colorado, which is a suburb

of Denver and a high school that he attended for a sophomore year was Weber High School in Weber, Utah, which was not far from where Tom grew up. So each year, he was at a different school. What were the actual years that he did attend high school? Do you have those? Handy? He attended high school. Fairview from 1976 to 1977. Aurora High School was 7576. I

believe as Weber High School in 7475. Right. To have that clarification. Thank you for that. I'm just quoting from memory here. In terms of his college career, he would go to the school. He wanted to play for the Utah youths. In three of his four collegiate seasons, Tom's youths made the NCAA tournament. In his freshman and senior seasons, they lost in the regional semifinals. Tom left

college with averages of almost 15 points and just under eight rebounds per game. Tom led the youths and scoring from his sophomore through senior seasons. He also led the team in rebounding as a junior and a senior at almost nine boards per game. He was a member of the youths all century team that was unveiled in 2008, which celebrated Utah's 100th season of men's intercollegiate hoops.

Tom scored 1698 points for Utah and his currently ninth all time as we record this in career scoring and 10th overall in total rebounds for the youths. There's another video of yours on YouTube channel, which has titled Tom Chambers the Utah youths years. It's almost 11 minutes worth. There's some tremendous footage in here. Tom on and off the court. What was the process behind getting some

of their great footage? You've got their Jeff. College basketball, the next big step, the legends of the game had declined. A stage that separates the men from the boys with their dramatic stories of exhilarating highs and crushing lows. This is Tom Chambers story. That was another video. I really enjoyed putting together like I said. I like videos that cover an aspect of a player's career, which

is not widely known and not widely available. I already had a game of his Utah youths years. It was Utah versus North Carolina in the 1981 NCAAs. I had that game in my collection. So that was some material that I had ready there. But I also had some newspaper clippings. And most of them were in digital format. That was the groundwork for me to do some

research reading the newspaper. I was able to obtain the footage from many games during Tom Chambers career there at the University of Utah that were later used in the video. Those were all digitized off of original film. So I was able to use the digital version of these. I was able to use highlight reels in my video. Looking back at his collegiate career, it's interesting to

note that Tom Chambers, as great as he was at the University of Utah, was still a bit overshadowed by his teammate Danny Vrains. And Danny Vrains was an exceptional player. He was one of the best high school players in the nation. In the same class that Tom was. Vrains went to school. I believe it was that skyline high school in the Salt Lake City. There was

a five star recruit. He was a player that was made for the college game. Tom and Danny were formidable to some on that team, both sharing time at the forward spots. Tom could also play center as well. But Tom Chambers was a bit overshadowed by Danny during his collegiate years, which is interesting to note because that role reversed once the two of them were drafted into

the NBA. But going back to University of Utah, I think it was a great opportunity to be able to play in the same class. I think it was a great opportunity to be able to play in the same class. I think it was a great opportunity to play in the same class. This is something that I wanted to do to draw attention to that deficit of

recognition. And hopefully this video will spur some interest in Tom receiving more recognition for Woody accomplished at the University of Utah. This is future Adam. A quick update since our conversation was recorded. I am very pleased to announce that Tom Chambers will have his jersey retired by the University of Utah. It was announced on January the 6th. He will be honored in Utah on February the

5th. Here's a quote from Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan. In the tremendous history of the Utah men's basketball program, Tom Chambers holds a special place for the accomplishments he achieved both as a member of the program and throughout his all star career in the NBA. He has brought distinction and positive recognition to the University of Utah by letting his team to two NCAA tournaments and achieving

four NBA all star appearances over the course of his 16 year professional career. We are excited to have Tom and his family join us in the Huntsman Center to commemorate his incredible achievements by displaying his jersey among the greats in Utah men's basketball history. Congratulations, Tom. Fantastic to have this honor bestowed upon you and wishing you all the best as the year progresses. That's actually me.

Thank you, Tom. Thank you for all the matches and the greats in the U.S. 698. They did. They really complimented each other on that team and interestingly enough they would become teammates again with the Seattle Supersonics for a good couple of years where Tom was more of the star on that team and Danny was a really good aggressive offensive rebounder. He was a good defender. I

think he should have taken that. He was underutilized in the Sonic system as an offensive weapon but to see those two paired together again in the NBA was really fun and exciting to see. The San Diego Clippers selected Tom Chambers with the eighth overall pick in the 1981 NBA draft. That draft class included all stars such as Mark Aguaya, Danny Hange, Rolando Blackman, Steve Johnson, Larry

Nance, Azaya Thomas Kelly, Chipuka and Buck Williams. As we record this, Azaya Thomas is the only Hall of Fame a from that draft class. Hopefully that will change very soon. Tom money missed four games with his two seasons that he played in San Diego. He averaged almost 18 points, seven rebounds and two assists per game. And he was named the NBA rookie of the month in

January of 1982. He was actually named to the NBA all rookie team but as an honorable mention. And I think he would have made that team officially had, say for example, Bill Walton been healthy that season because that San Diego Clippers team was being tooled around Bill Walton and what they needed was a power forward and a scoring forward, which is why they chose Tom Chambers

for that. And as backup to Walton because Chambers was one of those unique players who could play the three, the four and the five. Chambers was meant to be a building piece around Bill Walton, but Bill Walton was injured for all of Chambers rookie season and a good chunk of Chambers second season with the Clippers. Had the Clippers had that nucleus together and won some more

games and maybe even scooted into the playoffs. I think that would have set a different career trajectory for Tom in terms of his recognition in the NBA and in terms of his player profile. That's a great point because their record certainly worked against them in his rookie season. The Clippers went 17 and 65 and in his second season they improved a little bit 25 and 57

under coach Paul Silas, but you're right. I definitely think that would have impacted his standing amongst the up and come as in the league. Had they won a few more games and obviously had the great Bill Walton even close to 80 90% healthy. It was in August of 1983 that the Clippers were created Tom to the Seattle Supersonics. In his five years with the Sonics, Tom

only missed 17 regular season games and 16 of those were in the 1986 campaign. He averaged 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and almost one steal per game in his tenure with Seattle. And 1987 would be the highest scoring season of his career to that point. He also famously won the NBA All-Star Game MVP on the pitch. And he was one of the top honors as

we talked about. What would you like to elaborate on there in terms of Tom's reign in Seattle? No pun intended. His reign in Seattle was an interesting one. He was brought in to add youth and a scoring punch. The Seattle Supersonics at that time were obviously facing the Los Angeles Lakers as a dominant team in the Pacific Division. Their nucleus was starting to age just a

bit. You had Sigma holding down center. You still in the middle. But you had Gus Williams who was starting to age a bit. Freddie Brown, same thing. They were just past prime. And they needed to bring in some youth. Chambers didn't really fit very well into the system at first under coach Wilkins who tended to play a little bit more of a half court game. And

Chambers really has natural inclination is running gun. So I think he felt perhaps a little bit constrained and a little frustrated in that system. But it wasn't until Bernie Bickerstaff came in as head coach that things really started to change for Tom because Bernie Bickerstaff did implement a more up tempo running gun game. They drafted Xavier McDaniel who also was a highly athletic forward traded for

Dale Ellis who was a terrific outside shooter and really one of the great early three point shooting stars. And that really opened up Chambers game. It was a tantalizing look at what he can be. And the right system that four or five year evolution at Seattle was an interesting and exciting time. But I think it was at 86 87 season where Tom Chambers really started to

And in that series against Dallas in 1984, there was a classic game five. Unfortunately, Seattle were on the wrong side of the final school. It was called moody madness. Desutmering about you. It does. And it was such a heartbreaker of the game because they did come down to that game five and it came down to the last minute. And the sonics unfortunately made a couple errors.

And it went down from Dallas's way, what ended up happening for the sonics is after that loss, they didn't make the playoffs again until 86 87. So except an emotion a couple of rough years, but sometimes to achieve greatness, you've got to overcome adversity and struggle and persevere through it. Tom you mentioned earlier in 86 missed 16 games, he had broken his leg yet a fractured

leg at that point. So he really really suffered some adversity. But in the end of the year season, he took the lead in the day of the season as he was playing the playoff in 86 87. And this is something I didn't mention before. Tom Chambers was the first player standing six foot ten or taller to average one three point attempt her game for an entire

season. He did that in 86 87 and he connected on a respectable 37% of those, which even today for a big man at someone standing six foot ten or taller, still considered a respectable percentage. But that was 35 years ago. Does put it in perspective doesn't it, but the varieties had a very nice outside shooting touch. All this was a glimpse of the player that he

could become in the right system in 87 88 the following year. Xavier McDaniel was named to the All Star team instead of Tom Chambers. And I think the sonics were struggling how to manage three 20 point plus scores on that team. They brought in. Eric McKee is a rookie. They got old and polines. They were building a team that seemed to be moving in a direction

that was less towards Tom strengths in 87 88. His minutes went down a bit and scoring average went down a bit. It almost seemed like this was a direction that was not going to play to chamber strength anymore. So it was just that window of 86 87, which was really his blossoming a glimpse of what we would see when he moved to feed. Speaking of that

move to Phoenix, it was July of 1988 and he signed with the sons as the first ever unrestricted free agent. And I recently released a podcast episode with the Godfather of Arizona sports. The great Jerry Kalangelo and he did discuss how he built that late 1980s. Phoenix roster and particularly the addition of Tom Chambers to Phoenix. That was episode 127. I'm never above shameless self promotion.

As a member of the sons. Tom was an all star in 1989, 1990 and 1991. He was also named to the all MBA second team in 1989 and 90. And in Phoenix, he averaged almost 21 points. Seven rebounds and over to assists per game. He's scoring would ultimately blossom. And he'd have one of the most outstanding performances of his career. A 60 point game, which we'll

get to in a moment. But just generally looking back on Tom's career and Phoenix. What do you make of that Jeff? I remember when that happened, it was July of 1988 and I had heard about this new unrestricted free agent ability of players to switch teams. And Tom Chambers was the very first unrestricted free agent signing an NBA history. The Phoenix sons. We're in a process

of rebuilding after being hit with injuries and a drug scandal that involves some players on the team. And they're going to be a real big deal. They were trying to completely rebuild the team and hit the refresh button on the team. They started putting pieces together late in the 87, 88 season. They brought in Kevin Johnson and Tyrone Corbin and Mark West from Cleveland in exchange

for Larry Nance, who was the son's young star player. And they needed another veteran player to come in and provide stability for the sons. And they look towards Tom Chambers. He fit the bill lately in terms of what they were looking for. And a player that was eligible for the unrestricted free agent position. So when Tom came in, it was clear that this was going to

be a running gun team with types of players at Phoenix was building with they brought in Eddie Johnson as well, who was a great spot up shooter. They had a system in place that would take Tom Chambers and really exploit his abilities. So what we saw in 86 87 with the sonics would be taken to a whole new level. With the sons. And that's what we

saw was the greatest single season turnaround the NBA history at that time. The 88 89 season for the sons. So much fun to watch that Ben extent. Tom was the fourth leading scorer in the NBA in 9 and 90. He averaged 27.2 points per game. And that only trailed Michael Jordan, Carm alone and Patrick Ewing. So a fantastic offensive output from Tom. That same season. March

24 of 1990 to be prepared. He was doing his best is Tom expired for 60 points in a game against his former team, the visiting Seattle Supersonics. And in 42 minutes Tom registered 60 points on 22 of 36 in the field. He also had six board his 4 assists, one steal and two blocks. And he went 16 of 18 from the free throw line. For context

Kenny battle was the son's next with 15 points and Phoenix demolished Seattle 121 to 95. You uploaded that particular game. It's titled Tom Chambers 60 point game full game in high quality about one year ago. And it has over 4000 views. It deserves a lot more and hopefully in time it will. But how did you go about sourcing that particular contest and what you recall from

that fantastic game with Tom just went berserk? On March 24, 1990 Tom Chambers scored a career high 60 points against his former team, the Seattle Supersonics, becoming just the 14th player in NBA history to score 60 or more points in a game. This scoring feat was accomplished without making a single three point shot or requiring an overtime period. Chambers' offensive arsenal was on full display and

he shot an incredible 22 for 32 from the field. And in honor of the 30th anniversary of this game, we bring you its complete original broadcast, including a rare post game interview with Chambers following the game. So please enjoy this rare moment of greatness in NBA history. The beauty of having this channel is that the fans that do decide to subscribe to the channel and appreciate

what I'm doing on the channel often will email me and they may have some material that they were interested in. And trading or allowing me to use for the channel because their Tom Chambers fans too. So to make a long story short, I've been able to expand my collection with some very rare material through fans finding the channel and then reaching out to me. That's enabled

me to collect some of these really, really special and rare games. So that's how the 60 point game and some of these other rare games I'm posting came about into my collection was through the following I'm getting on the channel. Really dedicated Tom Chambers fans and some of them have their games to hunt VHS tape. So I've got to do the work of getting them digitized.

It's something I love to do, but to answer that question. The channel is now becoming its own entity in terms of allowing me to expand the content I have on it. In terms of that game, I did not see that game broadcast live, but the following day it was a headline in the sports section of the local paper here in Los Angeles. I was pumped up

when I saw that I was really excited. I'm having breakfast and saw that headline. It was just unbelievable. I read it a second time to see that I actually read it right. And I cut out that clipping and it's still here in my collection that original newspaper clipping. When that happened, it put everything that I really enjoyed about Tom and what I saw in his game.

It just put it into the stratosphere. At that point, I realized he had reached his full potential. He was there. He was among the NBA elite. The stat line you mentioned a moment ago really does show that he had a complete game. He wasn't just a score. He is a really underrated passer. I've now seen hundreds and hundreds of games of Tom Chambers. And he is

good passer. But he has got a scoreers mind. He had a complete game and helped his team to win. I think the beauty of that game also is that it was against his former team whom I think he fell at the top. And the time didn't do enough to retain him. It was a way of showing them. Look, I'm in a better position now with the

Phoenix sides. If my stats are correct, a per basketball reference.com. There have been 76, 60 point regular says and games in NBA history. And for context, 32 of those occasions, I courtesy of the iconic wheelchambling. It puts into perspective there. How great of an achievement that is to register 60 or more points in a regular says and game. In late June of 1993, the sun's released

Chambers, not long after the 1993 NBA finals wrapped up where the bulls held onto win that series in six games. He'd signed with the Utah Jazz in August. And Tom would come off the bench in all but four games with Utah. And he averaged 8.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in his two seasons with the Jazz. What do you make of his return back to Utah? His

impact there. And we'll get to one of the great videos you've uploaded in a moment. Put each of Tom's 20,000th point in the NBA. Tom signing with Utah was going to be a great fit for him. He was returning home. He is a Utah native. He did go to high school in Colorado, but he was born and raised in Utah. He went obviously to the University

of Utah. So coming to play for the Jazz was a perfect way for him to continue his career. And I think based on what I had read and heard that that's where he wanted to finish out his career was with the Utah Jazz. He was going to get to give the Jazz some bench scoring punch. And the Jazz felt that Tom was going to be a

key piece to make them a serious title contender. The Jazz went on those two years to have really, really good season records. But they came up against the Houston juggernaut. The two years at Houston Rockets went to the NBA finals where those two years that Tom was with the Jazz. But Utah had a phenomenal team. And it was really exciting to see him playing in front

of the fan base that really appreciated him too and what he was doing this stage in his career. I did put out a video about his Utah Jazz years and include some very rare clips of his time with the Jazz as well as a couple of clips of Tom speaking about his time with Jazz as well. The video is called Tom Chimbass, the Utah Jazz years.

It's almost eight minutes in length. The clip I referred to earlier was Utah versus the Clippers. It was from the 15th of April of non-stop. It was in 1995 and it's Tom Chimbass scoring his 20,000th point. And it's fantastic to see him rack up that milestone. And the two players who scored 20,000 or more points who are yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

That's correct. He was one of three going into this current NBA season. But Joe Johnson came out of retirement. Joe Johnson was one of the other three that was not the Hall of Fame. It has a 20,000 point career and was eligible. But he ended up signing with the Celtics. So now it's just Tom Chambers and Anton Jamison who are the only former players eligible for

the Hall of Fame who have had 20,000. And I'm not going to say that Tom Chambers was the only player in history of the game to have 20,000 points and a 60 point game. And an all star MVP and not be in the Hall of Fame. And I do want to add going back to that 60 point game. That Tom Chambers was only the 14th player

in NBA to score 60 or more points in a game. And by that time, the NBA was the only player who was eligible for the Hall of Fame. He was well over 50 seasons old. So he was in a elite group of players to do that. And furthermore, Tom Chambers is one of only four players in the entire decade of the 1990s to have a 60

point game. The other three being Michael Jordan, David Robinson and Carl Malone. And that 60 point was no free game. That game was a follow up to a 56 point game that he had against the Golden State Warriors a month. And he was a very earlier. So this was just no one and done explosion and never come close again. He really was a fantastic score and

had multiple 40 point plus games that season. He did. And your channel is definitely with searching through as well because I believe that 56 point guy is also one that you've shed recently on your channel. Yes, I recently acquired a large collection of VHS tapes. And for fans of my channel, I will be working at advertising those. It's slow work right now because I can only

do this on my free time. But there's going to be a lot of very rare and exciting games that are going to get posted over the course of 2022. Now in 1996 Tom journey to Israel. There's a video on your channel called Tom Chambers Tel Aviv 1996 champion. It's almost six minutes in length. What can you tell us about Tom's journey overseas and how you perform

there? Obviously the title does give away. What he achieved? This is a lesser known aspect of his career. Most NBA fans would not know that Tom Chambers played overseas for a season. He signed with Muckabee Tel Aviv, which is the premier team in Israel's professional basketball league and is a member of the Euro League of teams. So it's definitely a premier team in Europe. Today we're

going to take a look at one of the most unusual seasons in Chambers Pro career. In 1995, after five years, 14 seasons in the NBA and having surpassed 20,000 points while playing for the Utah Jazz, 36 year old Chambers was running out of options to play quality minutes in the NBA. Looking to Europe were other NBA stars went to extend their playing careers such as Dominique

Wilkins playing for Panathonikos and Xavier McDaniel playing for Thessaloniki in Greece. And Orlando Woolridge playing for Buckler, Belonia and Italy Chambers signed a one year contract with European powerhouse Muckabee Tel Aviv in Israel. He did not want to sign with the team in the NBA and perhaps play on the East Coast and do a lot of bench sitting. He wanted to get the playing time by

signing with a team that will really value his contribution. Muckabee fit the bill for him. He had a fantastic season. I think in the games that he played in, the team was 22 and 1. He did play in the Euro League tournament. So he has played against some of his former players. They were both fans from the NBA, former stars in the NBA who were also

trying to extend their playing careers in Europe. I think he averaged 18.6 rebounds to assist for Muckabee Tel Aviv, which ironically matches NBA career numbers. And he was MVP of the team and the team won the Israeli Premier League Championship. It's a little known chapter there I think that he did disappear for a year from the States to go over and play in Israel. So that

video was also a good refresher of what he actually managed to achieve over there. Another great addition to your channel. In late January of 1997, Tom Sander contracted to play with the Charlotte Hunits for the rest of the season. What can you tell us about his stint in Charlotte? And then we'll briefly get to where he finished his NBA career of Braves Top in Philadelphia. I

was in our headline in the NBA section that Tom Chambers was signed by the Charlotte Hornets. I was super excited because I was not expecting to ever see him in an NBA uniform again. But being on the West Coast and not having access to a cable television at the time, I did not see any of those games. I would follow what he was doing in the

box scores. And there wasn't a lot of playing time given to him. Dave Cowan's who was a recent guest on your show was the coach of the Charlotte Hornets. I wanted to bolster his bench and especially in the forward center positions because Charlotte had a couple injuries in their front court. And they thought, there's an opportunity to bring a season veteran in who could still play.

I'm not sure based on what I've learned on my research on it that Tom Chambers was in the best of shape coming in. I mean, really just couldn't solidify his position on the team with Charlotte. So I think what it did ultimately was it created a fire within Tom Chambers to give it one more shot and take it really seriously, which he tried to do the

following season. He was waved by Charlotte in early April of 97 and then in August per basketball reference, which is a fantastic place to get statistics and dates and whatnot from. He signed as a free agent with the Phoenix sons, which I did not know before Phoenix actually traded him to Philadelphia in November of 1997. So that was news to me. And then he ultimately retired

from the NBA on December 11th of 1997 after playing one game with the 76s. What was the difference between the two? What do you recall of his farewell to the NBA, Jeff? Well, I also followed that as well, but it was through the newspapers. I was excited that he might be able to finish his career out in Phoenix. But as it turns out, Phoenix decided to

trade him for a drafty of the 76ers, a European player is up and come. Our Tom went to Philadelphia. And I don't think Tom really wanted to play on the East Coast and be far away from his family. He had planted some roots in Phoenix. I think for him, it was probably a frustrating experience to be in pretty much a bench role. He was playing under

Larry Brown. Larry Brown's a fantastic coach. And I think if recollection serves me, Tom played under Larry Brown in some international either try out or team back in the late 70s or early 80s. So there was some familiarity with Coach Larry Brown and Tom Chambers. But Chambers just had a difficult time. Cracking into Philadelphia's rotation. And I'm not sure he really wanted to be there either.

But the footage that I was able to obtain of his time in Philadelphia really does show Tom on the bench, cheering on his team, patent players on the back when they come in for timeouts. He really wanted to make that experience a positive one. I don't think at that point his heart was in it any further. One of the questions that I've gotten in my conversations

with others about. Why is Tom Chambers not the Hall of Fame? And why is he not as well known as he should be after viewing the content on my channel or doing a little investigation into his career. It's something that's been on my mind for a number of years of. Why does he not seem to be in the conversation very often? I don't think there's any

one reason for that. I would speculate that it's probably a few factors and one of them being NBA entertainment and NBA. That was headed up, I believe, by Don Spurling. It was a fairly new division that David Stern, who was the fairly young commissioner at the time, wanted to implement was an entertainment division. So I think there were decisions made. To focus on promoting certain players

in the league. I'm not saying that any of those players that were focused on were undeserved of the attention. But it may have been a situation that I think was a very important thing. It was a situation where Don Spurling, who was the head of NBA entertainment, may have been choosing players that he personally liked or thought were more marketable. And I'll make a case and

point on that. In 1990, NBA came out with NBA superstars. It was a VHS tape that featured a number of NBA star players synced with popular music of the time. It was like a mix tape, early days of mix tape. And I was so excited. To get it because I knew Tom Chambers was going to finally be on it. He had just come off of two

stellar seasons with the suns, two all NBA selections, all those fantastic dunks and highlights. He wasn't even on the tape. And I was so disappointed. I bought the tape. He wasn't on it. And in his place. And I'm going to add Kevin Johnson to that too. Kevin Johnson was not on it either. In their place. It was Chris Mullin and Tim Hardaway. And I couldn't. I

couldn't understand why was those two players who got selected. Neither one of them were on the all NBA team. Their team didn't even make the playoffs in 89 90. And in 88 89 Kevin Johnson and Tom Chambers defeated the Warriors four games to one. So why were those two players picked to be on that tape instead of Kevin Johnson and Tom Chambers who I thought were

were more accomplished players at that time statistically winning wise and certainly Tom had a fantastic highlight reel of clips that could be used. I think the other factor might be the Larry bird factor. This is just a personal speculation. It seemed like in the 1980s, even until the early 90s, if you were a tall or a big white scoring player, you'd ultimately get compared by the

broadcasters to Larry bird. And I think it was an incredibly unfair comparison. Because Larry bird is a savant. One of the most gifted players in the history of the game. A complete package. There is going to be no other player that you can realistically compare to Larry bird. You could mention Magic Johnson. But to put Tom Chambers or any other player against Larry bird was automatically

unfair. And I've seen that happen so many times when Tom Chambers is being talked about. Tom Chambers was a score. He was James worthy with a jump shot. He was a slasher, a driver, a guy that can put up big numbers on the fast break that could take it out to the three point. He was not Larry bird. And I felt that that maybe have hurt

Tom Chambers a bit constantly being overshadowed by bird. And then maybe throw in playing on a couple of mediocre teams as the San Diego Clippers for a few years in the early days of the Sonics. Those would be my speculations of why I think Tom has not been consistently in a conversation. It's one of the games grades or nominated prior to me doing it for the

Hall of Fame. That's a great apt comparison. James worthy and Tom Chambers much more realistic comparison than as you said to a Savant like Larry bird. On a side note, that MBA superstar's tape. I mail out of that tape from the USA. I was that excited. Probably took two or three weeks. Maybe longer to arrive. When I went to play it in the VCR here. It

was in the USA format, the NTSC format. And we only had PAL format VCR here in Australia. So I could hear the audio. The music clips. But I couldn't see it. The footage it was all scrambled. And I was absolutely destroyed that I couldn't get to play it. It took another two or three years before I had access to a NTSC player to be able to

play it back here in Australia. But that's just a little side note there. It's just been fascinating to talk about Tom's incredible career. Anybody listening at this stage of the conversation who hasn't already subscribed to the channel must do so. Search for TC the latest TC for Tom Chambers TC 24 on YouTube and you'll find Jeff's great channel. It deserves tens of thousands of subscribers. Is

there anything else you wanted to add Jeff before we do put a bow on the conversation? And thanks again for being a fantastic guest and sharing your journey. Following Tom's career on the conversation today. Oh, thank you for having me. I'd like to add that my channel is non monetized. Nothing on that channel is monetized. I do it because I love doing it. It's never been

about me. I never wanted to do this to make money or to get recognition for myself. It's all about my love of the game. And sharing what I saw on my favorite player who is Tom Chambers and hoping I can move the needle just a bit. By sharing what I saw on him as a player and just be an advocate for him to be in that

conversation. Because I think he deserves to be in that conversation as one of the games. Greats and certainly as a candidate for the Hall of Fame. Beautifully said. And I've got some great content plan for 2022. I've got a continuation of the greatest games series. So I'm trying to put it on the screen. I've put out games as frequently as possible. Hopefully on a weekly basis.

I've got a brand new greatest dunks mixtape coming. It's already in the works. It's going to access a larger selection of dunks that have not been seen since their original broadcast. I think I can say this right now. Tom Chambers High School Fairview High School Boulder Colorado is retiring his high school Jersey on January 25th. And I will be there and I will put a video

out on the channel about that event. There are a couple other big events planned for Tom Chambers in the next couple of months. But they're not officially announcing and I don't think I should be announcing them here. But stay tuned because I will have those big events covered on the channel when they do happen. Fantastic. So watch this space. Will Tom be in attendance at that

high school Jersey retirement. Yes, he is confirmed he'll be there. I will be there. I hope to be able to record it on my recording device. But I believe that local media and Denver and Boulder are also going to be covering it so it should be available online. But I will produce a video on it when I have all that material. That's great. I'm excited for

you as well to meet up with Tom there. And that's only a few weeks away as you record this conversation. That's exciting news, Jeff. We might get you back on maybe later in the year when we might know a bit more detail about the impending hall of fame. Inductions and also once some of these possible events have taken place. So thanks again, mate for coming on

the show. It's been a real pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you so much, Adam. It's always fun to be able to talk about Tom Chambers and thank you for taking an interest in the work that I'm doing. I'm just a guy here doing his thing and it's it's so cool for me to see the fruits of all this labor. And again, it's a labor

of love. I'm not doing this for any other reason, but because I love it. Thanks for listening. I welcome your interaction with the show. Tap the microphone icon on my website to send me a voicemail. You can suggest discussion topics or guests you'd like to hear conversation with. Worldwide, the show has 189 ratings on Apple podcasts with an average of 4.9 stars with 100 reviews across

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