Legler attended La Salle University, where he became Academic All-American and scored 1,699 career points in four seasons for the men's basketball team. He was named to the First Team All-Big 5 and All-MAAC teams. Legler's 3.40 GPA earned him a place on the 1988 GTE Academic All-American Team. He was a career 43% three-point shooter. Legler led La Salle to the 1987 National Invitation Tournament championship game at Madison Square Garden as well as the 1988 NCAA Tournament. He was inducted into the Philadelphia Big 5Hall of Fame in 1995 and the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1997.
NBA career
Legler went undrafted in the 1988 NBA draft and went to play basketball in Europe. After playing a few seasons in Europe, he came back to America and played in the Continental Basketball Association with the Omaha Racers. He led Omaha to a CBA championship while leading the league in scoring. Legler played in the NBA at the shooting guard position from 1989 to 2000. He is probably known most as a player in Washington, where he played four seasons from 1995–1999. His best NBA season was 1995–1996, when he ranked first in the league in both 3-point field goal percentage and true shooting percentage, ranked second in turnover ratio, and won the 1996 Three-Point Shootout during All-Star Weekend. He holds the record for a 3-round aggregate of 65 points. He also was a runner up for the Sixth Man of the Year award, which was won by Toni Kukoč of the Chicago Bulls. Legler was well known as an accurate three-point shooter and made 260 of his 604 attempts from that range in his career, an accuracy of 43%. This figure ranks fifth on the all-time list, behind only Steve Kerr, Hubert Davis, Dražen Petrović, and Stephen Curry. Legler also played for the Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and Golden State Warriors. His career ended due to a recurring knee problem. During his 10 seasons in the league, Legler made a little over $5.1 million in salary. Legler was one of three NBA players to finish a season shooting better than 50% from the field, better than 50% from the three-point line, and better than 80% from the free-throw line.
Post-NBA career
Legler currently appears regularly on the ESPN programs NBA Shootaround, NBA Fastbreak, "ESPN First Take" and NBA Coast to Coast, and he is a basketball analyst on SportsCenter and various shows on ESPN Radio. He has worked at the network since 1999. Legler was considered a front-runner for the vacant La Salle head coaching job in 2018, but the position was ultimately given to Ashley Howard.
