Phil Chenier (b. 1950)
Phil Chenier attended Willard in the 1960s and played basketball at Berkeley High and UC Berkeley. In 1971 he was drafted to the NBA Baltimore Bullets where he played professionally until 1979. He also played for the Indiana Pacers and the Golden State Warriors. Known for an extraordinary jump shot, he averaged 17.2 points per game for his career, and was named to three NBA All-Star teams. According to former teammate Kevin Grevey, Chenier was “the best pure two-guard that has ever played in this organization. . . Phil had special gifts that no one else in the league had at that time.”
After retiring from professional basketball in 1981, Chenier moved into sports broadcasting. Since 1987, he’s been the voice most consistently associated with the NBA’s Washington Wizards, working as Comcast SportsNet analyst alongside play-by-play commentator Steve Buckhantz. Observes former Bullets player Kevin Grevey, “That ease and that grace that he had a player, I see it transcend into the way he broadcasts. He’s not choppy. He’s not real up and down. He’s not real boisterous on a call. That beautifully succinct ease that he has on the air kind of reflects the way he played.”