Tyson Cleotis Chandler (born October 2, 1982) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Chandler was the second overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, then was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls. He has also played for the New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, Dallas Mavericks, and New York Knicks. As starting center for Dallas, he played an integral role in the franchise's first NBA championship in 2011. He was also a member of the United States men's national basketball team's gold medal runs in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Summer Olympics. He plays the center position.
Chandler was born to Frank Chandler and Vernie Threadgill, though he did not meet his father Frank until later in his life. He grew up in a family farm in Hanford, California, just south of Fresno, California. Chandler began playing basketball at the age of three years on a basket Chandler's grandfather, Cleotis, fixed on a tree. Chandler grew up doing farm work such as milking cows, slopping pigs, and cultivating crops. At the age of nine years, Chandler and his mother moved to San Bernardino, California; he was already nearly six feet tall. As a child, Chandler was teased because of his height; children on his school basketball team joked that he was older than he really was, and that he had been left back several times in school.