Philip Chenier (born October 30, 1950) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who was a

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA) for ten seasons. He was also a television sports broadcaster for the NBA's

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

Early years

Born and raised in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, Chenier graduated from Berkeley High School and played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

in Berkeley.

NBA playing career

Chenier was selected fourth in the 1971 NBA Hardship Draft by the Baltimore Bullets, and played for them for eight seasons, from

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

. The franchise moved from Baltimore to Washington in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

, after his second season. He was one of the better

shooting guards The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

in the NBA for the first six seasons in his career, but he suffered a back injury early in the 1977–78 season and had season-ending surgery. The Bullets went on to win the NBA title with

Kevin Grevey Kevin Michael Grevey (born May 12, 1953) is a retired American professional basketball player. A 6'5" (1.96 m) swingman, the left-handed Grevey played for the Washington Bullets from 1975 to 1983 and the Milwaukee Bucks from 1983 to 1985. He is ...

as the shooting guard. Chenier was never the same player after that; he came back from his surgery late the next season, but never could crack the Bullets' starting lineup again. Chenier was released by the Bullets after the 1978–79 season, and played briefly for the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first estab ...

and

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

and retired after the 1980–81 season. Chenier, who was a 1972

NBA All-Rookie Team The NBA All-Rookie Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1962–63 NBA season to the top rookies during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the NBA head coaches who are not allowed to vote for player ...

selection, averaged 17.2 points per game for his career, and was named to three NBA All-Star teams. In 2017, the Wizards announced that they would retire Chenier's number 45 jersey. On March 23, 2018, Chenier's jersey was retired.

Broadcasting career

Chenier, who got his start in television sports broadcasting with

Home Team Sports NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts regio ...

back in 1985, has announced black college games alongside broadcasters Charlie Neil and

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

for

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

. He was the color analyst for the

Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

and

games on television from 1987 to 2017, with a final pairing for

NBC Sports Washington NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts reg ...

alongside play-by-play commentator,

Steve Buckhantz Steve Buckhantz (born June 19, 1955) is a television play-by-play announcer, most recently for the Washington Wizards. Biography Buckhantz began his television announcing career as Sports Director at WTTG, the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-owned ...

Personal life

Chenier resides in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages. Columbia began wit ...

, with his wife Gerry Chenier. He has two daughters, one son and grandchildren.

References

External links

Phil Chenier stats at Basketball Reference.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chenier, Phil 1950 births Living people African-American basketball players American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Basketball players from Berkeley, California Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni California Golden Bears men's basketball players Capital Bullets players Golden State Warriors players Indiana Pacers players Mid-Atlantic Sports Network National Basketball Association All-Stars National Basketball Association players with retired numbers Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Columbia, Maryland Point guards Sportspeople from the Baltimore metropolitan area Washington Bullets announcers Washington Bullets players Washington Wizards announcers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople