Unfortunately no free agent signings have ever brought the Phoenix Suns an NBA Championship, but they have had a number of notable free agent signings that kept the team good, fun, and competitive – sometimes, even great.
1988 brought one of the most important changes in the history of North American professional sports: free agency. For the first time in NBA history, players were able to become unrestricted free agents and sign with whomever they wanted at no loss of talent compensation for the receiving team.
As history notes – and as I am sure you are aware – the Phoenix Suns were the first team to take advantage of this opportunity by contacting veteran power forward Tom Chambers, formally of the Seattle SuperSonics, a player that Suns General Manager Jerry Colangelo and newly re-hired Head Coach Cotton Fitzimmons believed would be the perfect fit in their re-vamped, run-and-gun team.
The call came as 12:01am. Colangelo gave Tom a matter of minutes to decide on if he was coming to Phoenix or not. Chambers loved the idea of the system the Suns were planning to run, and loved that Jerry was so no-nonsense about the proposal.
Chambers knew the Suns wanted to win and believed the he was the perfect fit to try and make that happen.
And boy was he.
The league’s first unrestricted free agent signing upped his scoring average to two career high’s while leading Phoenix to two Western Conference Finals appearances before finally becoming the team’s best reserve to Charles Barkley in 1992-93.
And yet as great as he was, he is not the greatest free agent signing in Phoenix Suns history.
These are the top-ten according to Win Share.