The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hall of Famer Sam Jones, who won 10 NBA titles, dies at 88
Basketball Hall of Famer Sam Jones, the Boston Celtics’ “Mr. Clutch” whose sharp shooting fueled the league’s longest dynasty and earned him 10 NBA titles — second only to teammate Bill Russell — has died, the team said. He was 88.
Jones died Thursday night in Florida, where he had been hospitalized in failing health, Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss said.
“Sam Jones was one of the most talented, versatile and clutch shooters for the most successful and dominant teams in NBA history,” the team said in a statement.
“His scoring ability was so prolific, and his form so pure, that he earned the simple nickname, ‘The Shooter,’” the Celtics said.
The Celtics paused for a moment of silence before Friday afternoon’s game against the Suns, showing a video tribute on the screen hanging among the championship banners above the parquet floor at the TD Garden. His No. 24, retired by the Celtics in 1969 while he was still an active player, also was displayed on the monitor in the hushed arena before a still photo of him in a suit and the words “Sam Jones 1933-2021.”
Jones averaged 17.7 points per game over 12 seasons. The number went up in the postseason, when he averaged 18.9 points and was usually the No. 1 option for the game’s final shot for the teams that won 10 titles from 1959-69.
“We never flew first class in my 12 years of playing basketball,” he said this fall. “But we always won NBA championships.”
In 1964, Jones was a member of the NBA’S first starting lineup to include five Black players, joining Russell, Tom “Satch” Sanders, K.C. Jones and Willie Naulls. Although coach Red Auerbach maintained he was thinking only of his best chance to win, the lineup broke with an unwritten rule that pressured teams to have at least on white player on the floor.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Jones will be remembered as “one of the most prolific champions in all of professional sports.”
“His selfless style, clutch performances and signature bank shot were hallmarks of an incredible career,” Silver said. “Sam was a beloved teammate and respected competitor who played the game with dignity and class.”
Born in Wilmington, N.C., Jones attended North Carolina Central, a Division II, historically Black university in Durham. Auerbach first heard of Jones when he went to North Carolina to scout the national champion Tar Heels and was told that the best player in the state was actually at Central playing for Hall of Fame coach John Mclendon. Auerbach selected Jones in the first round of the 1957 draft, eighth overall, despite never seeing him play.
Jones led the Celtics in scoring five times — including the 1963 champions, when he was one of eight future Hall of Famers on the roster. When he retired in 1969 at the age of 36, Jones held 11 Celtics records. Jones won 10 championships in 12 seasons. A five-time Allstar, he was was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984.