Lionel Chalmers has joined the Wofford men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach, as announced by head coach Mike Young on Tuesday afternoon.
“I am thrilled to announce the hiring of Lionel Chalmers as an assistant coach,” said Young. “He was a great player at Xavier and enjoyed a long and distinguished professional career and I am excited to give him his start in the coaching world. He will be excellent for our team and college community.”
Chalmers spent nine seasons playing professional basketball overseas. In total, he has over 17 years of experience playing between the intercollegiate and NBA levels and his time overseas.
Chalmers attended Xavier University, where he played college basketball for four years as an undergraduate and later as a graduate student. During his senior campaign, he led Xavier to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. He also guided Xavier to two Atlantic 10 regular season titles and two Atlantic 10 tournament titles. In 2003 and 2004, Chalmers was the recipient of the Connie Brown Most Inspirational Player Award at Xavier and he was inducted into the Xavier University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.
He was drafted in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft. The Los Angeles Clippers took Chalmers with the 33rd overall pick. During the 2004-05 season with the Clippers, Chalmers saw action in 34 games and averaged 3.1 points and 1.4 assists in 12 minutes per game. He was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves after one season with the Clippers and played with the Timberwolves in the 2005-06 preseason.
Chalmers played professionally overseas for 12 different clubs over a nine year span from 2006-2015. During his time overseas, he won five championships.
