The Pioneer Basketball School is pleased to announce that one of the 2009 guest speakers is Jim Chones.

Jim Chones spent eleven years as a color analyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball Team. Chones played with the Cavaliers for five seasons, including the "Miracle of Richfield" season in 1974-75, when he averaged a career and team high 15.8 points per game, while contributing 9.0 rebounds per contest. In April 1991, Chones was chosen by Cavs Fans as the Center for the "Classic Cavs Team" covering the first 20 years of Cleveland Cavaliers History.

Before joining the Cavaliers in the 1974-75 season, Chones played two years in the American Basketball Association, for the New York Nets and the Carolina Cougars. He earned an NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980 and after two years with the Lakers, he completed his NBA career with the Washington Bullets (Wizards). During 1981-82, Chones played in Florence, Italy and in the fall of 1982, he played in Rome (Roma) for Banco de Roma.

Chones played three seasons with the Marquette University Warriors before turning pro. He was only the second college player in NCAA history to leave college before his graduating year to play in the NBA. He played on the 1972 United States Pan American Team. In the same year, he was named to the UPI and AP College All-American First Team.

He began his broadcasting career as the color analyst for the Baldwin Wallace College Men Basketball Team on cable during the 1984-85 Season. Chones has worked for Sportschannel (Foxsports) American, broadcasting the "National High School Game of the Week". He also broadcast Conference USA Collegiate Basketball Games. He has also worked for ESPN and CBS Sports. He produced and directed a one-hour television Sports Talk Show called "Sports Profiles" nationally syndicated on FoxSports.

During the summer of 1991, Chones worked at several radio sports talk and call-in shows for WKNR and WERE of Cleveland.

Jim is the Coordinator of Sports and Leagues for the City of Bedford Heights, Ohio. He and his wife are the proud parents of daughters Kareeda 28 (Marquette University grad) now working for the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA in Sales/Marketing, Kaayla 23, (North Carolina State University grad) and a WNBA draftee, 04, (Washington Mystics), and triplet sons, Kameron, (attends Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island), and Kendall and Kyle, (both are attending Colgate University in Hamilton, New York).

Thirty-five years after leaving college, during his junior year at Marquette University, Jim received his degree in Philosophy. In addition, he was inducted into the Marquette University Hall of Fame in early October of 2004.