Sam Jones: Celtics legend, 10-time NBA champion dies at 88
The Celtics announced that 10-time NBA champion Sam Jones died Thursday night in Florida. He was 88 years outdated.
Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss informed the Related Press that Jones had not too long ago been hospitalized as a consequence of his failing well being. The workforce paid tribute to Jones with a second of silence earlier than Friday’s recreation in opposition to the Suns.
Identified for his clutch scoring capacity, the Celtics drafted Jones with the eighth decide within the 1956 NBA draft out of North Carolina Central. He performed 12 years—from ’57 to ’69—as a part of a Boston dynasty.
“You look at the championships and what he did, it’s clearly an enormous loss for the neighborhood right here,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka stated Friday.
Throughout his profession, Jones received 10 NBA titles, together with eight alongside Invoice Russell—the second most of any participant in NBA historical past. He averaged 17.7 factors and practically 5 rebounds per recreation. Within the 1964–65 season, Jones led the league in scoring with 25.9 factors per recreation.
Walter Iooss Jr.
Jones’s No. 24 jersey was retired within the rafters of Boston Backyard, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 1984.
He’s additionally a member of the NAIA Basketball Corridor of Fame, the North Carolina Sports activities Corridor of Fame and earned a spot on the NBA’s seventy fifth Anniversary Group that was introduced earlier this 12 months.
“Sam Jones shall be remembered as one of the vital prolific champions in all {of professional} sports activities,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated in an announcement Friday.
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