How Filthy? Tom Chambers Edition

How filthy is inspired to take a look at some recent players at their finest hour in the NBA. Too often I tend to remember athletes as the aged veteran or wounded star. How Filthy? will focus on the prime cut of meat from a players career. Like Larry Bird said in 1986, "All I know is people tend to forget how great the older great players were. It'll happen that way with me, too." Let's not let that happen. Let's remember just how filthy these players were.

Most people remember Tom Chambers as a dunking machine. He was also the league's first unrestricted free agent, switching from the Seattle Sonics to the Phoenix Suns. I find this interesting due to the recent circus of free agency were going through. Chambers was drafted 8th overall in 1981 by the San Diego Clippers out of Utah after averaging 18.5 points as a senior.

Chambers was a four time all-star, and even won the All-Star Game MVP in his first appearance during the 1986-87 season. Despite his reputation of being selfish (his teammates were pretty outspoken about this), he and Kevin Johnson formed a near unstoppable duo with the Suns. Check out some of their chemistry together.



Tom's best statistical season came during his second year in Phoenix during the '89-90 campaign. He scored 27.2 points per game (4th in the league) and grabbed 7 rebounds a game, while shooting over 50% from the field. Teaming with Kurt Rambis inside, the Suns had one of the more goofy looking front courts in NBA history. During the 1990 season Tom had games of 56 and 60 points. Here is footage of the 60 point game against his former team, The Sonics.



Here is a few of his huge dunks




So how filthy is Chambers? 2/5 trash cans of filth

How Filthy? Glen Rice Edition

How filthy is inspired to take a look at some recent players at their finest hour in the NBA. Too often I tend to remember athletes as the aged veteran or wounded star. How Filthy? will focus on the prime cut of meat from a players career. Like Larry Bird said in 1986, "All I know is people tend to forget how great the older great players were. It'll happen that way with me, too." Let's not let that happen. Let's remember just how filthy these players were.

As a 19 year old college sophomore, Glen Rice took 12 3-pointers in 1,056 minutes for the Michigan Wolverines. As a senior, he attempted 192 and made 99 (51.6%) in 1258 minutes. He also took home the Final Four Most Outstanding Player Award and National Championship. This a quite a leap in confidence and skill. I always remember him as a sharpshooter, and after watching some video, I was absolutely correct. I thought he relied more on catch and shoot 3-pointers more than he actually did, only making 6 or more 3-points in 16 games during his career. Instead he had a variety of options in his arsenal, including a post-up and curling off-ball screens

His peak was at the age of 29 during the 1996-97 season for the Charlotte Hornets. However, his career high came at age 27 when he poured in 56 points on 20 of 27 shooting from the field and 7 of 8 on 3-pointers. Take a look



But back to '96-97. During this season he posted a career high for points per game with 26.8, ranking 3rd in the NBA behind Michael Jordan and Karl Malone. He led the league in minutes played and 3-point percentage. He earned an All-NBA second team selection and generally lit it up night in and night out. His 16 games of 35 points or more prove that. Pictured above is Rice holding his All-Star Game MVP Trophy. He earned it by scoring 26 points for the Eastern Conference during the mid-season classic. He did have to chuck quite a bit to get the trophy, shooting 24 shots in 25 minutes. The classic moment of this season was Rice and Jordan going shot for shot in a head to head match-up. Watch until the end and you will not be disappointed!



Rice got one championship title with the Lakers in 2000. His production fell off sharply after he left LA. He played for 4 teams in his final 5 seasons, bouncing around to the Lakers, Knicks, and Rockets before being waived by the Clippers. To express his fall from the elite even further, he was traded late in his career with 3 2nd round picks for John Amaechi and one 2nd round pick. That is just stunning


So how filthy is Glen Rice? 3/5 Trash Cans of filth