Top-ten free agent signings in Phoenix Suns history

ATLANTA – 1990: Tom Chambers of the Phoenix Suns looks on against the Atlanta Hawks during a game played circa 1990 at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1990 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)

2. Tom Chambers

(34.6 WS / .136 WS per-48)

Tom Chambers was the NBA’s first unrestricted free agent signing.

The story goes that Jerry Colangelo and Cotton Fitzsimmons had targeted Chambers as the perfect player to be at the offensive heart of the run-and-gun system that Fitzimmons was going to implement. At 12:01am, the soonest they could call a player, they reached out to Chambers, made their offer to which Colangelo said he had only a few minutes to respond before he was going to move on.

Impressed by their unity in the system, their belief in Chambers, and how dedicated Colangelo was to doing free agency right, Chambers agreed and the rest is history.

Chambers was an accomplished scorer in the league prior to Phoenix, having averaged over 20 points per game in a season three times, and was an All-Star (and game MVP) two seasons prior.

However, his time in Phoenix upped his game tremendously.

Setting a career (and franchise) high in scoring his first season with the Suns, averaging 25.7 points per game, he followed up his 1989-90 campaign with an even better scoring year, putting up 27.2.

Yet scoring a lot of points in a season is not what his claim to fame in Phoenix is.

First, he set the franchise’s two highest single game scoring records in the same season, 1989-90 (the record only broken by Devin Booker in 2016), dropping 56 on Golden State and then a month later 60 against his former team Seattle.

To top even that, Chambers had a magical moment where he landed one of the greatest and highest-flying slam dunks in NBA history. Against New York, Chambers leaped up to slam with two hands, his knees at the shoulders of defender Mark Jackson. In one motion, Chambers used Jackson to raise his height even higher, creating, arguably, the greatest poster dunk of all-time, that single moment forever solidifying him in the annals of league history.