The NBA is in mourning this Friday, Christmas, when the death is confirmed at 88 years old the legendary KC Jones, player and coach of Boston Celtics.
The information was confirmed by Celtics, a team with which he played nine seasons in NBA, and he won titles in eight of them, the third largest in the history of the league, behind only the legendary teammates Bill Russell (11) and Sam Jones (10).
He remained successful in his coaching days, winning three titles (one as an assistant and two as a coach) during the 1980s Boston success with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, considered the best in NBA history.
Although he always remained in the background both as a player and as a coach, Jones, who was affectionately named “C” as the symbol of the champion, and his statistics were not striking, he barely reached an average of 7.4 points in his career, his work as a goalkeeper on the field has always been essential, especially in the defensive section.
Jones was the perfect team player whose defense has always created serious problems for rival stars such as Jerry West and Oscar Robertson and whose form of play has fueled the Celtics engine.
“I haven’t seen a man who shot as badly as KC could stay in the NBA,” recalled legendary Bob Cousy, the famous Celtic goalkeeper whom Jones initially supported and then replaced as a starter when he retired. “COOZ”. in 1963.
Cousy said everyone was wrong about Jones when it came to assessing his qualities, that he proved to be incredible on defense, and that he eventually learned how to score enough that opposing teams not being able to afford not to score it.
Jones was in the title-winning teams with the Celtics from 1959 to 1966, a series of eight years unmatched in professional sports.
The only season he did not win a championship was 1966-67, and soon after, Jones, 34, retired.
But Jones remained in the competition, 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 the legendary Bill Fitch in 1977.
Fitch left the team for four years. later, and Jones replaced him, inheriting a group led by Bird and his renowned colleagues McHale and Parish.
Three weeks after Jones took over, the Celtics made a move to acquire goalkeeper Dennis Johnson, who will be the key to reviving the Boston team.
Together, they reached the NBA Finals for four consecutive seasons (1984-87), winning titles in 1984 and 1986. Jones’ relaxed training style was criticized by some, but was welcomed by his players, especially the great NBA leader. . team, the legendary Bird, who has always shown him great respect as a professional and person.
Jones stopped coaching the Celtics after the 1987 season and moved to the Celtics main office before ending his coaching career with the Seattle SuperSonics and Detroit Pistons.
The Celtics decided to withdraw their number 25 and was included in the Basketball Hall of Fame, in the 1989 class.
Jones, originally from Texas, trained with Russell at the University of San Francisco, winning consecutive NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956.
In the summer after the second title, the two led the United States national team to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Jones is also just one of seven players to have won college and NBA basketball titles as well as Olympic gold, joining Russell, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Jerry Lucas, Quinn Buckner and Clyde Lovellette.