KC Jones

KC Jones (born May 25, 1932 in Taylor , Texas , † December 25, 2020 in Connecticut ) was an American basketball player for the Boston Celtics and coach of the Capital Bullets as well as the Washington Bullets , the Seattle SuperSonics and the Celtics of the National Basketball Association . With eight NBA championships as a player and two as a coach, he was one of the most successful personalities in the history of this association. He was also one of eight people alongside Bill Russell to have won both the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship and the NBA Championship, as well as Olympic gold.

Player career

Born KC Jones (his full name) into a poor family who moved from Texas to San Francisco in search of work , Jones became a standout athlete who eventually decided against American football and basketball. The talented construction player (Guard) received a scholarship to the University of San Francisco and became a roommate of center Bill Russell. Together they won Olympic gold in 1956 for the USA. When Russell was drafted by Coach Red Auerbach for the Boston Celtics in the same year , they parted ways, but in 1958 Jones was drafted to the Celtics after completing his US military service.

There Jones was initially a substitute for the legendary Celtics playmaker Bob Cousy and, together with his namesake Sam Jones (the stand-in for distance thrower Bill Sharman ), was the replacement pair of players. Jones was Cousy's deputy for four years, winning all four championships from 1959 to 1962 as a substitute.

When Sharman left in 1961 and Cousy in 1962, they were followed by the "Jones Brothers" KC Jones and Sam Jones and also became one of the league's most feared guard pairs. While Sam Jones was responsible for the points, KC Jones provided the defensive toughness. Although he only got 7.4 points and 4.3 assists per game in his career (both just half of Cousy's stats), his influence on the game has been significant. Because Jones developed into one of the most feared defenders in the league and with his tough defense contributed to the fact that opposing star guards like Oscar Robertson or Jerry West could hardly develop against the Celtics. With a team that included some of the most effective defenders of the 1960s (center Bill Russell, wingers Tom Sanders and John Havlicek, and KC Jones), the Celtics won the NBA championship every year through 1966. In the last year of Jones' career, the Celtics were defeated for the first time in eight years in 1967, and Jones ended his playing career at the age of 35 in the only (!) Year of his career without an NBA title. As a thank you for his services, his jersey number 25 has never been awarded by the Celtics since then.

In 1989, Jones was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for career achievement . He died in December 2020 at the age of 88.

Coaching career

Jones was also successful as a coach. He led the 1980s Celtics team under superstar Larry Bird to two championship titles in 1984 and 1986 before retiring at the age of 59. He had previously won two championships as assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Celtics. His teams won 556 of their 802 games.

Web links

KC Jones in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame . On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 (in English).
KC Jones in the NBA Encyclopedia On: NBA website; New York, NY, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2017 (in English).
KC Jones - player profile on basketball-reference.com
Statistics for KC Jones (Trainer)

Individual evidence

^ Richard Goldstein: KC Jones, Celtics Standout as Player and Coach, Dies at 88. In: The New York Times . December 25, 2020, accessed December 26, 2020 (American English).

personal data
SURNAME	Jones, KC
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American basketball player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH	May 25, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH	Taylor , Texas
DATE OF DEATH	December 25, 2020
Place of death	Connecticut

[1] Richard Goldstein: KC Jones, Celtics Standout as Player and Coach, Dies at 88. In: The New York Times . December 25, 2020, accessed December 26, 2020 (American English).

KC Jones

Table of Contents

Player career

Coaching career

See also

Web links

Individual evidence