Jones, who was a big winner as a player and coach for the Boston Celtics during a Hall of Fame career, passed away on Friday, the Celtics confirmed. He was 88 years old.
KC was Jones’s first name, although some joked that the “C” stood for championships. It was easy to see why.
He played nine seasons in the NBA, all with the Celtics, winning titles in eight, the third most in the league’s history, behind only teammates Bill Russell (11) and Sam Jones (10). That success carried over to his coaching days, when he won three titles (one as an assistant, two as head coach) on the Boston hit series of the 1980s with Larry Bird and company.
Jones also won the title of assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972.
Jones was not flashy and his days as a player were not filled with flashy statistics; he averaged only 7.4 points in his career. But the 6-foot-1 point guard was the consummate team player whose defense gave rival stars like Jerry West and Oscar Robertson a headache and whose game turned the Celtics’ engines into the game.
“ I just didn’t see how a guy who shot as bad as KC could stay in the NBA, ” recalls Bob Cousy, the famed Celtics point guard who initially approved and then replaced Jones as starter when ‘Cooz’ retired. . 1963. “I really didn’t think his other skills would be enough to keep him in the league. But I was wrong. He turned out to be incredible in defense and eventually learned to score enough that the other teams couldn’t handle it. afford not to defend him. ” .
Jones was part of the Celtics teams that won the title from 1959 to 1966, an eight-year streak that was unmatched in professional sport. The only season he didn’t win a championship was 1966-67, and Jones, at 34, retired shortly afterward.
But Jones stayed in the game, first as a coach at Brandeis University outside Boston and then as an assistant or head coach in the NBA or ABA before returning to the Celtics as an assistant to Bill Fitch in 1977. Fitch left the team. Four years later, Jones replaced him and inherited a group led by Bird and fellow Hall of Famers Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Three weeks after Jones took over, the Celtics made a move to take over Dennis Johnson.
Together they reached the NBA Finals for four consecutive seasons (1984-87) and won titles in 1984 and 1986. Some criticized Jones’s relaxed coaching style, but his players welcomed him.
“He respects us as a coach and as a person,” Bird once said.
Jones left the Celtics bench after the 1987 season and worked in the Celtics’ front office before ending his coaching career in Seattle and Detroit.
His number 25 has been retired by the Celtics and was inducted into the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Originally from Texas, Jones wore Russell to the University of San Francisco and won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956. The summer after the second title, the two led Team USA to a gold medal in the United States. Melbourne Olympics.
To this day, Jones is just one of eight players to have won college and NBA basketball titles and Olympic gold, alongside Russell, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Jerry Lucas, Quinn Buckner, Clyde Lovellette and Anthony. Davis.