Tom Hamonds! Do YOU know who HE is!??

If you were asked to identify the man in the picture- would you know who he is? Or if we asked what you thought his profession is- would you know? Take a close look. Now ask someone around you. Ok... any guesses?

Well, let CPM introduce you. This man is far more than your regular guy. His life is no drag... well, kinda!

CPM readers let us introduce you (if you have not already been introduced) to Tom Hammonds. Tom Hammonds is a successful NBA veteran with racing in his blood! And CPM had the pleasure of watching Tom race in the National Hot Rod Association Nationals at the newly built zMax Dragway in Concord, NC.

Even during a 12-year NBA career that included a stop with the former Charlotte Hornets, Hammond raced dragsters professionally, and competes full time on the National Hot Rod Association circuit.


“I always loved the sport,” he said last week during the Carolina Nationals in Concord. “I always wanted to do this after my basketball days were over.”


Hammonds sold his Darlington, S.C., Chevrolet dealership in 2006 and launched Tom Hammonds Enterprises to field a team in NHRA’s Pro Stock division, where cars generate 1,350 horsepower and can reach 100 miles an hour in 2 seconds.
“We accelerate really fast,” he said.


As a youngster growing up in Crestview, Fla., Hammonds was as intrigued by speed as basketball. He competed in drag races as a teen (“not legally,” he says), and admired standouts like Bob Glidden and Lee Shepherd. But at 6-10, basketball made Hammonds famous. He was all-ACC in 1988 and 1989 at Georgia Tech and finished as the Yellow Jackets’ fifth-leading scorer. His jersey number, 20, is retired at the school.


Hammonds played 12 years in the NBA, where he averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game with four teams. Basketball and racing, he said, require similar assets for success.