Ok.C. Jones, the quietly tenacious Corridor of Fame guard who performed on eight consecutive N.B.A. championship groups with the Boston Celtics and later coached the crew to 2 league titles, has died. He was 88.
His dying was introduced by the Celtics. Based on The Related Press, the crew mentioned Jones’s household confirmed that he died at an assisted residing facility in Connecticut, the place he had been receiving look after Alzheimer’s illness for the previous a number of years. The crew didn’t say what day he died.
Jones wasn’t a lot of a scorer, and he was usually overshadowed by flashier teammates. However he was famend for his defensive play — the work that doesn’t essentially present up in field scores — in irritating many an opposing backcourt star.
He was an All-American on the College of San Francisco, teaming up with Invoice Russell on groups that gained 55 consecutive video games and captured two N.C.A.A. championships. He joined with Russell on america Olympic basketball squad that gained the gold medal at Melbourne, Australia, in 1956 after which performed alongside him because the Celtics cast a dynasty within the late Fifties and ’60s.
Jones, Russell (at middle) and Tom Sanders (at ahead) performed key roles in a ferocious Celtic protection on groups coached by Pink Auerbach.
“Ok.C. caught to you want glue,” Lenny Wilkens, the Corridor of Fame guard and coach, informed Terry Pluto for his N.B.A. oral historical past, “Tall Tales” (1993). “He was with you, proper on you, each step. He’d bump you, maintain you, get in your approach.”
Talking to Sports activities Illustrated in 1965, when the Celtics had been embarking on what could be their eighth straight championship season, Russell mentioned: “Ok.C. Jones doesn’t have a bagful of defensive strikes. He has an entire truckload of defensive strikes. He’ll pester a man a lot that the man will begin to search for Ok.C. even when he’s not there.”
Ok.C. Jones — who in accordance the N.B.A.’s web site was named for his father, Ok.C., an oil subject employee, who in flip was named for Casey Jones, the legendary railroad engineer — was born on Might 25, 1932, in Taylor, Texas. When he was 9, his dad and mom separated and his mom moved the household to San Francisco.
After starring in basketball and soccer in highschool, Jones was recruited by the College of San Francisco. A 6-foot-1-inch guard, he performed with the 6-foot-10 Russell on groups that gained the N.C.A.A. championship in 1955 and 1956.
Auerbach’s Celtics obtained Russell within the first spherical of the 1956 N.B.A. draft in a commerce with the St. Louis Hawks and chosen Jones within the second spherical. Jones joined the Celtics in 1958 after Military service and a preseason soccer tryout with the Los Angeles Rams at defensive again.
After enjoying as a reserve on 5 Celtic championship groups, Jones grew to become an everyday in 1963 when Bob Cousy retired. That season, he was a part of the primary all-Black beginning lineup in N.B.A. historical past: Ok.C. and Sam Jones (no relation) at guard, Russell at middle and Sanders and Willie Naulls at ahead.
Jones ran the offense whereas persevering with to play dogged protection for the final three championship groups within the Celtics’ title run. He retired after the 1966-67 season, when the Celtics had been eradicated from the playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Celtics retired Jones’s No. 25 throughout his remaining season. He was elected to the Basketball Corridor of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1989. He averaged 7.4 factors a sport for 9 professional seasons and ranked No. 3 within the league in assists per sport for 3 consecutive seasons.
After retiring as a participant, Jones coached basketball at Brandeis College for 3 seasons after which grew to become an assistant coach beneath Cousy’s former backcourt associate, Invoice Sharman, on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 1972 N.B.A. championship crew. He was later head coach of the Washington Bullets crew that reached the 1975 N.B.A. finals.
Jones was named the Celtics’ head coach in 1983 and took the crew to championships in 1984 and 1986. He left the bench after the 1987-88 season, having introduced the Celtics to the N.B.A. finals in 4 of his 5 seasons with lineups that includes Larry Chook, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson. He was the Celtics’ vice chairman for basketball operations for one season after his teaching stint and coached the Seattle SuperSonics within the early Nineteen Nineties.
Info on survivors was not instantly obtainable.
Whether or not enjoying for the Celtics or teaching them, Jones was decidedly low-key.
“Individuals need to see a coach who has a whip in a single hand and a chair within the different,” he informed Knight-Ridder Newspapers in Might 1986, whereas en path to his second Celtics championship as a coach. “I don’t match that mildew. I choose to not embarrass my gamers in entrance of 15,000 folks simply to impress the world.”
He definitely impressed Auerbach, who as soon as remarked, “The most important factor you’ll be able to say about Ok.C. is that he’s a winner.”