didn't hear about this until today. Sam Jones, guard for Russell era Celtics, passed away last Thursday. I'm not sure there were ever 4 better guards than Cousy - Sharman - Sam - KC on one team. That's 4 Hall of Famers, not to mention the swing men, Frank Ramsey and later John Havlicek.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1961/03/20/jones-jones-at-courtOn the Celtics, it would be almost impossible for the Jones boys (they are not related) to be anything but substitutes. Bob Cousy, who has been an NBA All-Star for 10 years, and Bill Sharman, an All-Star for seven, are the first-string guards, and they are not men easily pushed aside. The facts of life, however, are that Cousy and Sharman are in their 30s, and their skills, while just as shiny, are no longer as durable. "Around the second quarter or so," Cousy says, "I actually plan on being taken out of the game, and I pace myself accordingly. That's when Sam and K.C. come in. They not only sustain a lead, they add to it. And on defense, they hound the opposition guards so much that my man's all softened up for me when I come back in."
By
George Walsh
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I did not follow the Celtics until really their last run to the title with Russell. Sam Jones came the year after Russell and has 10 titles. KC had already retired before that year, and Sam had announced his retirement. I think it was a surprise that Russell also retired. They had an off-year or two, but I think they picked up JoJo White the year Russell and Sam retired, had already picked up Don Chaney, then with the pick they got the down year picked Dave Cowens. With Don Nelson and Hondo holding over, that was the core of the 1970s teams.
John Feinstein piece in the Post today about Sam:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/01/01/feinstein-sam-jones-red-auerbach/Feinstein points out how Sam was a great shooter for the era but was the original "Banksie" because he always, always, used bank shots. My brother always used to bank his shot. What I had heard (not in Feinstein's article) was that Sam learned to bank as a kid because he played in a rec room or gym with a low ceiling, so he could not get any arc on his shot. Feinstein's article is written based on his conversations with Red Auerbach so it has more of his stories. He has a great story about some of the crud Black players went through in the 60s:
In the 1950s and ’60s, Black players often couldn’t stay in the team hotels, so they would stay at one another’s houses when they traveled. In 1963, when the Celtics had five Black players, they checked into a Louisville hotel the day before an exhibition game with the Cincinnati Royals.
When Jones and roommate Satch Sanders went downstairs to the hotel restaurant to eat, they were told, “Sorry, no Blacks eat in here.”
“We told them we were guests in the hotel,” Jones remembered. “They said it didn’t matter.”
Jones and Sanders found Russell, K.C. Jones and Willie Naulls and went to Auerbach’s room. Auerbach called the hotel manager, who backed down and said the players could eat in the restaurant.
“Not good enough,” Jones told his coach. “We’ve been insulted. And tomorrow, after we’re gone, they won’t serve Blacks in that restaurant.”
Auerbach understood. He drove the five of them back to the airport and they flew home without staying in the hotel or playing in the game. A little more than a year later, those five players became the first all-Black starting lineup in NBA history.