Richard Jefferson is among the players born on June 21.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including three leap day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below are the most notable NBA players born on June 21.
Richard Jefferson (1980)
R.J. carved out an impressive 17-year career in the league and has since gone on to a high-profile career in broadcasting. Jefferson made it to the league as the 13th pick in the 2001 NBA Draft out of Arizona, where he was a star for the Wildcats.
Jefferson immediately made a splash for the Nets, finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting. He averaged double-digit points over each of his next nine seasons which also included stops in Milwaukee and San Antonio. In his later years, he was a member of the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
Tom Chambers (1959)
Chambers was a great dunker and four-time All-Star. The forward was selected eighth overall in the 1981 NBA Draft by the San Diego Clippers. He averaged 17.2 points and 6.9 rebounds in a remarkable rookie campaign, scoring at least 16 points per game through his first 11 seasons. Chambers’ profile started to climb when he joined the Seattle SuperSonics in 1983, and he made the first of the aforementioned four All-Star appearances in 1987. Chambers made all of those in a five-year span, with three of them happening with the Phoenix Suns.
He signed with the Suns in 1988, averaging 26.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals in his first two seasons in Phoenix. Chambers also finished Top 10 in MVP voting in both of those, while taking down All-Star MVP in 1987. He closed his career with short stints in Utah, Charlotte and Philadelphia before officially retiring in 1998. Throughout his 16-year career, Chambers averaged 18.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.8 steals per game.
Derrick Coleman (1967)
Coleman was one of the best players in the country at Syracuse University, earning him the top pick in the 1990 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. That high pedigree showed early in Coleman’s career, taking down Rookie of the Year in his debut season. Coleman averaged 18.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.3 blocks in that remarkable rookie season. He followed it up with a Third-Team All-NBA appearance just two years later, and then did that again in 1994. That was also Coleman’s sole All-Star appearance, averaging 20.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
In his first five seasons with the Nets, Coleman averaged 19.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. Coleman spent six seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers after that, and closed his career with the Detroit Pistons in 2005.
Want to see every NBA player born on June 21? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Herschel Baltimore (June 21, 1921)
- Floyd Volker (June 21, 1921)
- Jimmy Rayl (June 21, 1941)
- Don Sidle (June 21, 1946)
- Greg Hyder (June 21, 1948)
- Derrick Rowland (June 21, 1959)
- Mike Brittain (June 21, 1963)
- Brian Davis (June 21, 1970)
- Loren Woods (June 21, 1978)
- Ronnie Price (June 21, 1983)
- Thaddeus Young (June 21, 1988)
- JaMychal Green (June 21, 1990)
- Jeremy Tyler (June 21, 1991)
