The Phoenix Suns have had a knack for signing the less-talented brother when more than one makes it to the NBA. Here they are, ranked.
Brothers who play in the NBA are a rare thing. Throughout history, there have only been 61 sets of brothers who have made it to the NBA (or ABA) at least once. Uncanally, at least one brother in 14 of these sets has played for the Phoenix Suns. That 23% and seems like a lot. Moreover, four out of those 14 sets of brothers have been twins.
But even crazier than that, the Suns have, in nearly every case, rostered the worst of the brothers. In fact, at the bottom of this insane rabbit hole, I only found two instances where the more-talented brother played for the Suns and the less-talented one did not.
Those two cases were Brothers Lee and Brothers Bradley. Don’t remember them? Don’t feel bad.
Ron Lee played for the Suns from 1976-1979 where he averaged over 10 points per game. His older brother, Russ Lee, played for the Milwaukee Bucks from 1972-1975 where he averaged just 2.9 points per game. Ron went on to play six total seasons in the NBA while Russ petered out after those three in Milwaukee.
Then there were the Bradley brothers. The younger brother, Charles, played just three seasons in the NBA, from 1981-1984, and averaged just 3.2 points. Dudley Charles, though, had a nine-year career, from 1979-1989, where he averaged a slightly better 5.2 points per contest. One of those seasons was with the Phoenix Suns (1981-1982).
That’s it. That’s the list. Those are the only two times the Suns have had the better of a set of brothers on their team and not the worse one.
Sometimes, they had a choice and they still picked the less talented brother. Of course, they have also had two brothers on the team at the same time. That has been the case a few times.
So, let’s rank them. Here are the 12 times the Phoenix Suns have rostered the weaker option of a set of brothers ranked on my very own, “Wait, why did they sign him?” scale.