Tom Chambers, 1991-92 NBA Hoops
Does life get much better than being Tom Chambers? You’re playing basketball for a living, you’re one of the more respected white dudes in the league, you live in sunny Arizona, you wear purple, the Knicks are your bitch, and you have -- unarguably -- the best hair in NBA history. Oh, and to top it all off, you’re middle name is Doane. I mean, where do I sign?
After games in which he would score 20 points or more (all of them), Tom Chambers would retire to his quarters, where he would be fed fat-free grapes by a cavalcade of modestly attired women (he was from Utah). If it was a Saturday night, he may even top it off with a glass of sparkling water. When Tom Chambers had sufficiently conquered Phoenix, he made the next logical step: he moved to Israel to play for the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team. Obviously. Chambers’ style of high-flying, killer-crossover-themed basketball was the equivalent of streetball in Israel, and on one occasion in 1995, he spent three months in an Israeli prison for raising the roof during a game. Cameras documented Chambers’ experience abroad, which was later pitched as a sitcom to NBC entitled, “White Men CAN Jump...Compared to the Rest of Israel.” The pilot starred Billy Zabka as Chambers (in the show, he also solved crimes), but that was not enough for the network to pick it up. In fact, NBC scoffed at such a premise, and claimed they had more important things to do, such as exploring the possibility of remaking American Gladiators for a prime-time audience.
Did you know?
Ironically -- because Chambers’ locks were usually flawless, and because “Seinfeld” aired on NBC -- Jerry Seinfeld got the idea for the “black market shower head” episode from the back of this card.
