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By: \u00a0Michael D. McClellan<\/span> |\u00a0<\/strong>Imagine: The greatest athletic deal-closer of the twentieth century is celebrated endlessly, his name floating atop every all-time championship list and dropped into every serious debate over who has exerted the greatest influence on their sport, his close personal friendships awash in celebrity, royalty and head-of-state chutzpah. His likeness is iconic, a symbol of championship excellence against which all others in team sport are measured. His legacy as the ultimate bottom line, results-oriented exclamation point is long since secure, the label \u2018winner\u2019 perhaps more synonymous with his name than any athlete in history. And yet when Bill Russell \u2013 yes, that Bill Russell, the one with the signature laugh and all of those championship rings, many of them coming at the expense of a certain statistical glutton named Wilt Chamberlain \u2013 is asked to name the single greatest player he has ever been associated with, the answer comes quickly and without hesitation.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the years that I played with the Celtics,\u201d says Russell, \u201cin terms of total basketball skills, Sam Jones was the most skillful player that I ever played with. At one point, we won a total of eight consecutive NBA championships, and six times during that run we asked Sam to take the shot that meant the season. If he didn\u2019t hit the shot we were finished \u2013 we were going home empty-handed. He never missed.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine: You are Sam Jones, and Russell\u2019s words waft over you from just a few feet away. You are humbled by them, and your usual loquaciousness evaporates at the sincerity of the proclamation. The loss of words is easy to understand; Russell, never one to offer undeserving praise, is beautifully matter-of-fact in his assessment of his close friend and former teammate. It is the ultimate show of respect, and you are reminded of 1969, when Jones had announced his retirement and Russell had decided to keep his own retirement plans under wraps, so as not to detract from the magnitude of Jones\u2019 twelve seasons in a Boston Celtic uniform.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one compares to Bill Russell,\u201d Jones finally responds. He is seated with six other NBA legends, some of the greatest to ever pick up a basketball \u2013 Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Julius Erving among them. This is the Bill Russell Adult Fantasy Basketball Camp, a one-time opportunity to rub elbows with hoop royalty. \u201cWith all due respect to the gentlemen around me, Bill Russell was the smartest, most driven basketball player the game has ever seen. To this day he remains the single most influential force in team sports of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n And so it goes. Friends for life, Russell and Jones share a mutual respect forged by the blast furnace temperatures of championship basketball, one that comes from laying it on the line together, night in and night out, and ultimately walking away together, on top. For Jones, the journey began in the small town of Laurinburg, North Carolina, where sports flowed freely from one season to the next, and where baseball appeared to be his strongest suit. Not that he dreamed of becoming a professional athlete; times were different in the 1940s, and the teen aged Jones saw himself becoming a teacher. Sports represented a shot at a scholarship, a chance to experience life as a college student, an opportunity to pursue his dream career as an educator.<\/p>\n Determined to make athletics a means to that end, Jones played basketball well enough at Laurinburg High School to generate genuine interest from a number of prominent colleges. He attended North Carolina Central, a small black NAIA school in Durham, where he played for the legendary John McClendon, who had learned the game from Dr. James Naismith, and where Jones found himself free to push the boundaries of his emerging talent. Had Jones played today he would be considered a blue chip basketball phenom, but back then many of his sublime collegiate performances went largely unnoticed. There simply were no Internet chat rooms, no cell phones, no text messages, no 24 x 7 sports channels beaming coverage to all points on the globe. Jones\u2019 exploits traveled slowly instead, by word-of-mouth, which is how another legendary coach, Arnold \u201cRed\u201d Auerbach, came to take a chance on the unknown talent from a school that was barely on the basketball map.<\/p>\n Selected eighth overall by Auerbach in the 1957 NBA Draft, Jones arrived in Boston wary of his chances of making a team that had just won its first championship. The Celtics boasted two All-Star guards in its starting lineup, eventual hall of fame players Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, and there was plenty of veteran competition for the reserve spots on the bench. Jones considered himself a long shot at best. Auerbach, for his part, had never seen Jones play, and he approached the rookie with skepticism. He wondered whether Jones would have the heart to survive training camp, well-known to be the most demanding in the league, and he doubted the rookie\u2019s mental toughness to battle his way onto the season-opening roster. All of that changed as soon as he saw Jones run the first set of drills. He was sprinting without breathing hard. He was clearly prepared, and serious about the opportunity.<\/p>\n “When he arrived,” Auerbach recalled years later, “there were three other guys almost just like Sam who were trying to make the team. The difference was the other three just thought about shooting. After a couple of days, Sam started handing out some nice passes and blocking out so other guys could shoot. You could see that he was committed to becoming a complete player.”<\/p>\n Forced to cut veteran and former ACC star Dick Hemric to make room for Jones, Auerbach played his rookie shooting guard sparingly during the 1957-58 season. Cousy and Sharman were at the peak of their respective games, Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn were another year wiser, and the Celtics appeared destined to repeat as NBA champions. Jones averaged a meager 4.6 points while playing in just over 10 minutes per game, and few outside of Boston knew anything about the player destined to become one of the greatest clutch shooters of all time.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019 rookie season ended in disappointment. The Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive season, and were overwhelming favorites to repeat as champions. Facing the St. Louis Hawks, a severe ankle injury to Russell torpedoed any title hopes as Bob Pettit and \u201cEasy\u201d Ed Macauley won their first and only NBA crown.<\/p>\n Jones saw his playing time double the following season as Auerbach began planning for Sharman\u2019s eventual retirement. The Celtics, now deeper with Jones playing a bigger role in the offense, steamrolled the Minneapolis Lakers 4-0 to win a second title in three years. In a season defined by balance and capped with a crown, six Celtics (Sharman, Cousy, Heinsohn, Russell, Frank Ramsey and Jones) averaged double-figure scoring.<\/p>\n Winning it all again the next season cemented the Celtics\u2019 stature as a dynasty in the making. Russell was clearly the league\u2019s defensive player nonpareil, the team\u2019s driving force, and the primary cog in Auerbach\u2019s title-hungry machine. It was also clear to Red that Jones was the heir apparent to Sharman, and that his young shooting guard seemed to play his best basketball with the game hanging in the balance. The addition of Satch Sanders in 1960, along with the grooming of fellow backup KC Jones as the eventual successor to Cousy, gave Boston a stronger defensive presence and furthered Auerbach\u2019s need for perimeter scoring. Heinsohn assumed that role during the 1960-61 season, leading the Celtics with a 21.3 PPG average, as Boston won its third consecutive title. For Jones, Auerbach\u2019s attacking, fast break offense fit like a glove. It was similar to McClendon\u2019s system at North Carolina Central, full throttle on both side of the ball.<\/p>\n “Our style of play at that time started the use of smaller, fast forwards,” Auerbach told Pro Sports Weekly. \u201cIt was up tempo, and because it put a smaller team on the floor we had to go to the press more often. See, Sam understood his role in this perfectly. He would race the length of the court on the wing, and on defense he knew how to pressure his man. Sam was a smart basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1960-61 season marked the last for Sharman, whose body was beginning to break down from the rigors of professional basketball, and it was also noteworthy in that Jones made his breakthrough into the starting lineup.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I was ready,\u201d Jones says, \u201cbut in my mind, the backcourt still belonged to Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman. They were great, great players who had earned their right to start. Replacing Bill as the starter at that point, well that was by necessity. He was hurting and the team needed me to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n With Sharman retired and Jones the unquestioned starter, Boston posted a 60-20 record and earned a date with Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1962 Eastern Division Finals. It was classic battle; in the thrilling seventh-game showdown, with the score tied at 107 and two seconds left, Jones hit a jump shot over the outstretched arms of Chamberlain to seal the win. After the game Chamberlain hailed Jones as the Celtics’ best player. Auerbach lauded his guard\u2019s coolness under pressure and predicted that Jones would be ready to produce further heroics if needed. The comments would prove prophetic; in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Jones again came through, scoring five of the Celtics’ 10 overtime points in Game 7 to propel Boston to a fourth straight NBA crown.<\/p>\n With Jones in his prime and his reputation as a clutch performer spreading throughout the league, it was also becoming apparent that Jones\u2019 favorite shot \u2013 the stop-and-pop bank shot \u2013 was a deadly accurate weapon, and one of the most feared shots in the game. His quickness, intelligence and knack for finding the open spot on the court allowed him to get the shot off even when opponents tried sticking like glue.<\/p>\n \u201cI started shooting the bank shot in high school,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t a great outside shooter and I struggled a little making layups, so I worked on my shooting technique and I focused on using the backboard. I picked out my target and I\u2019d shoot for hours. I got to the point where I could really trust that shot, and it helped the rest of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n And about that knack for seemingly always being in the right place at the right time?<\/p>\n “You simply can’t stand still,” he explains. “When the ball is shot, the defender has to turn his head to see where the rebound is going. When I see we have the rebound, I immediately go to another position on the court. The man who is guarding me has his back to me now and he doesn’t know I’ve moved. He has to turn around and look for me. It doesn\u2019t have to be much. Just an opening. That\u2019s all you need, because you only need a split second to get a shot off.”<\/p>\n The Celtics would win the titles in 1963 and 1964, giving them six consecutive championships and cementing their status as a dynasty. Jones scoring average continued to climb as well, as he, along with John Havlicek, became the focal points of the offense. The retirement of Bob Cousy following the 1962-63 season also ushered in a new era in the Boston backcourt, and one with a distinct defensive feel. Cousy, replaced in the starting lineup by defensive specialist KC Jones, could only marvel at the quality of play exhibited by the duo nicknamed \u201cThe Jones Boys\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great pairing,\u201d Cousy says. \u201cIt gave Arnold [Auerbach] a different dimension that what he had with me and Sharman, and he knew how to coach to their strengths. It helped keep the championships coming, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones averaged a career-high 25.9 PPG during the 1964-65 season, good enough for fourth in the league, and landed in the NBA All-Star Game for the third time in his career. Noteworthy to be certain, but statistics and individual accolades were of little concern. Sam Jones was a team player who shared Russell\u2019s singular desire to win it all, all the time.<\/p>\n “Scoring averages don\u2019t mean a thing, ” he says. “Making the All-Star team, and being named All-NBA, those things don\u2019t mean a thing either. Every guy on those Celtic teams had the ability to lead the team in scoring if that’s what he was asked to do. But we all had a role to play. We all knew what was expected of us, and what each of us had to do in order to win the championship. It was the most unselfish group of people I\u2019ve ever been associated with. It\u2019s also why I didn\u2019t want to be inducted into the hall of fame without my teammates. To me, what we did wasn\u2019t about one person. It was only about Bill Russell or Sam Jones. It was about the entire team, the roles we played, and the sacrifices that we made in order to achieve something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n The Celtics continued sacrificing and kept right on winning, adding two more titles to the coffer before Auerbach bowed out as head coach following the 1965-66 season. Rumors swirled as to who would take over the reins, but in Auerbach\u2019s mind there was only one other man who could coach the great Bill Russell: Russell himself.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat choice,\u201d Jones says without hesitation. \u201cRussell was at the perfect point in his career to coach the Boston Celtics. It was a veteran team, a close team, and we were all focused on championships. That was all that mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell\u2019s first season as player\/coach ended in disappointment, as the Celtics succumbed 1-4 to Wilt Chamberlain and the eventual champion Philadelphia 76ers. Jones played well throughout, leading the team with a 22.1 PPG scoring average, and although he failed to make the All-Star Team for the first time in four years, Jones was named to the All-NBA Second Team. The Celtics, meanwhile, were viewed by many as too old to challenge for another championship. They proved the experts wrong by winning it all in 1968 and repeating in 1969, with Jones playing a huge role in Game 4 of that \u201969 series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Behind by one point with seven seconds remaining, the Celtics called a timeout and Russell didn\u2019t hesitate in choosing the player to take the game-winning shot. When Jones found the ball in his hands, he did what he always did best.<\/p>\n “I knew that last shot was good from the moment it left my hand,” Jones says, smiling. “There never was any doubt because I had time to release the shot properly, and I trusted my technique completely. That took the pressure off. The ball rolled right over the cylinder. We won that game, and then we went on to win the championship.”<\/p>\n The \u201969 championship gave Russell 11 titles in 13 seasons, while Jones finished with 10 in 12. Both retired as two of the greatest legends to ever wear a Boston Celtic uniform. Perhaps the greatest compliment anyone paid to Jones was supplied by Auerbach at a special ceremony at Boston Garden. “I would like to thank Sam Jones,” he said at the time, “for making me a helluva coach.”<\/p>\n In 1970, Jones was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary All-Time Team, and in 1983 he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1996, Jones \u2013 Mr. Clutch to you \u2013 was further honored by being named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.<\/p>\n You were born on June 24th, 1933, in Laurinburg, North Carolina.<\/strong><\/p>\n Laurinburg is a very small town \u2013 much smaller than Wilmington, which is where many people seem to think I was born and\u00a0raised.\u00a0 Wilmington had a big, big school.\u00a0 Laurinburg didn\u2019t have anything like that.\u00a0 It was a very small town, and my childhood in Laurinburg was very typical in many respects.\u00a0 All of the boys that I knew played basketball, baseball and football.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t focused on one sport, we played them all.\u00a0 That\u2019s just the way it was back then.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Who were some of your role models as a child?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was fortunate to have what you would call mentors \u2013 these were boys that were a little bit older than me, and these were boys that I looked up to as role models.\u00a0 There were four of them in total, and three of these four mentors went on to college \u2013 and I\u2019m proud to say that all three of them graduated from college.\u00a0 They were very important people in my life.\u00a0 They all played sports \u2013 in fact, they were the ones that got us younger kids involved.\u00a0\u00a0I can tell you right now that we never got into trouble, and I think that says something about the influence that the older boys had on us.<\/p>\n When they went on to college and left us behind, I remember them coming back and telling us stories about meeting people from different places in the United States \u2013 places I thought I\u2019d never visit, of course \u2013 and that was something that really stayed with me as I grew up.\u00a0 I would sit there and listen to their stories with my eyes wide open, and they would talk about cities that seemed to exist in another world.\u00a0 I learned that they\u2019d all gotten scholarships to go to college, so they didn\u2019t have to pay, and that was something else that really stuck with me.\u00a0 I knew that if I wanted to go to college, then someone was going to have to give me a scholarship.\u00a0 So I guess you could say that these mentors were truly instrumental in leading me to the basketball court.<\/p>\n There is something else I would like to mention:\u00a0 My father died when I was quite young, and that could have given me the excuse to go the wrong way \u2013 but I did not.\u00a0 I had a very fine immediate family, and a fine extended family, and we still have family reunions every year.\u00a0 So to be drafted by the Boston Celtics was more than an honor for me \u2013 it was a testament to the fine family that raised me into the man that I became.<\/p>\n You went to high school at Laurinburg Institute.\u00a0 What were your high school years like at Laurinburg?<\/strong><\/p>\n Laurinburg Institute was a co-ed school.\u00a0 The coach\u2019s name was Dr. Frank McDuffie, Jr., and he was the coach of football, basketball, baseball and track.\u00a0 Since we were a very, very small school, we had to play several sports.\u00a0 My sports were basketball and baseball, but he made me play three years of football at quarterback, which I didn\u2019t want to play [laughs].\u00a0 Somehow I made it through, and after graduation I was one of the most highly recruited basketball players in the State of North Carolina.\u00a0 He never did make a football player out of me \u2013 there weren\u2019t a lot of offers to go off and play quarterback [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You played collegiate basketball at North Carolina Central, a small NAIA school.\u00a0 Tell me about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n Back in those days blacks couldn\u2019t go to the white schools, at least not in North Carolina.\u00a0 There were a lot of white schools that recruited me, but they were simply too far away \u2013 either up north or way out west.\u00a0 I thought it was funny in a way; recruiting was much different then than it is today, and some of these schools contacted me even though I\u2019d never heard of them.\u00a0 I guess they had heard about me from someone who had seen me play, or from someone who had told someone about me.\u00a0 Anyway, I ended up staying close to home and going to what is now known as North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.<\/p>\n I was recruited by head coach John McClendon, who became one of the first African-American coaches to break into professional basketball when he coached the Cleveland Pipers.\u00a0 He was quite a man.\u00a0 He traveled the world promoting the game of basketball.\u00a0 He learned basketball from Dr. James Naismith as an undergraduate at Kansas, and he was the first coach in history to win three consecutive national titles. He did that by leading Tennessee State to the 1957, 1958 and 1959 NAIA national championships.\u00a0 For many years he scouted opposing teams for the United States, as the US prepared to play basketball in the Olympic Games.\u00a0 He\u2019s also in the NAIA Hall of Fame \u2013 I think he was inducted sometime in the 1970s.\u00a0 He was a great man, so it was an honor to play for him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What kind of coach was John McClendon?<\/strong><\/p>\n I enjoyed my time with Coach McClendon because he gave you a lot of leeway.\u00a0 You had a lot of liberty to create something in his offense.\u00a0 But he was also a little bit of a dictator like Red was with the Celtics. They both stressed discipline and fundamentals, things that are still important today.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aside from professional basketball, what other career goals did you have?<\/strong><\/p>\n I love education.\u00a0 I love teaching.\u00a0 So I would have become a teacher.\u00a0 I was also interested in medicine \u2013 if there had been scholarships for black kids to go to medical school back then, and if I had qualified, I’d have done that over pro ball.\u00a0 But there just wasn\u2019t any money for me to go that route.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In September 1954 you entered the Army.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Army sent me to Camp Gordon, but I was only there a short time before they switched me to the 101st Airborne Division in Augusta, Georgia.\u00a0 I guess they saw me as one of those gung-ho guys [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is it true that you jumped out of perfectly good airplanes?<\/strong><\/p>\n True story [laughs].\u00a0 Some guy came around looking for volunteers for jump school, and he told us we’d make more money doing that.\u00a0 Well, all he had to say was money \u2013 I was a pretty good athlete and I was in pretty good shape, and he was looking for guys who fit that mold.\u00a0 I thought it would be interesting so I volunteered, and the next thing you know I\u2019m at Fort Benning, Georgia, where they prepared you for jumping.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did jumping scare you?<\/strong><\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t long before we were actually jumping, and reality hit me \u2013 I thought I had to be out of my mind [laughs].\u00a0 Well, they took us to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.\u00a0 At that particular time that\u2019s where you did most of your jumping.\u00a0 Most people don\u2019t realize this, but you don\u2019t pull your own parachute.\u00a0 In the plane, you have what you call a static line.\u00a0 When the jump master ordered you to stand up, you hooked yourself up to that static line, which actually stayed in the plane, and that\u2019s what pulled your chute for you.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t do it yourself.\u00a0 You also had an emergency chute, just in case, which you would pulled yourself in the event of a problem with the primary chute.\u00a0 It was interesting because you\u2019d see all of these people standing up and bailing out of the plane, and the parachutes opening up, and that\u2019s all you want to happen when it\u2019s your turn to jump.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thrill that everyone should try once in their lives because there\u2019s nothing under you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You played basketball on a military team.<\/strong><\/p>\n The jumping played a part in that, too.\u00a0 In training they work with you on how to hit the ground \u2013 they teach you to roll over because you hit pretty hard.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thud, it\u2019s not an easy landing.\u00a0 I hurt my ankle pretty badly once.\u00a0 I think it was my fifth jump.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t break it, but it was about as close as you come so I got out of there \u2013 I didn\u2019t jump anymore [laughs].\u00a0 In the meantime I got shipped to White Sands Proving Grounds, which is in New Mexico.\u00a0 I was given a desk job, and they were starting a basketball team \u2013 it was the first basketball team that they had ever fielded \u2013 and it was fielded by a second lieutenant named Robert Williams.\u00a0 Fine man.\u00a0 Well, when he started the team he made me his assistant coach.\u00a0 He wanted me to help because he was inexperienced and really didn\u2019t like cutting players, and he knew he could delegate the duties that he didn\u2019t like to his assistant [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What were the games like?<\/strong><\/p>\n We had twelve players on that first team.\u00a0 We were very fortunate in one respect, because we had people on the team who were over 6\u20196\u201d.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t think the Army was allowed to take anybody over 6\u20196\u201d.\u00a0 Anyway, we played our games with these twelve volunteers who were simply interested in the game of basketball.\u00a0 There was nothing fancy about it \u2013 in fact, that first year we didn\u2019t even have a gym to play in.\u00a0 We scrimmaged in a Quonset hut.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we used to practice in \u2013 they just put baskets on each end of the Quonset hut, and when they were finished only a small number of people could be seated in it.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking 60-to-70, tops.\u00a0 That\u2019s the place we practiced.\u00a0 So needless to say, we didn\u2019t have any home games that season.\u00a0 We played all of our games off base \u2013 at other air force bases, army bases, and on some college campuses against\u00a0 junior varsity teams.\u00a0 That year we played 34 games, and we won 30.\u00a0 The current athletic director at Texas Tech, Gerald Myers, was on that junior varsity team that we played against at Texas Tech.\u00a0 This was back in 1955.\u00a0 And then there were people like Frank Ramsey, who was my teammate in Boston.\u00a0 Frank was in the military, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky.\u00a0 And there was Bobby Leonard, who was known as Slick \u2013 he played professional basketball for the Minneapolis Lakers and the Los Angeles Lakers.\u00a0 Both of these gentleman are in the Hall of Fame, and both were playing basketball in the military at the same time as me.\u00a0 Bobby was the one who really got me interested in playing professional basketball.\u00a0 I\u2019d never really thought about it until we played against each other at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.\u00a0 Frank Ramsey was there, Bobby Leonard was there, Al Bianchi was there \u2013 Al Bianchi played for Syracuse and Philadelphia, and went on to coach professionally with Chicago and Phoenix.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you play against Frank Ramsey?<\/strong><\/p>\n No, because he had just gotten shipped out, but I played against some of these other guys and I performed pretty well.\u00a0 That\u2019s when people started asking me if I wanted to play pro ball.\u00a0 Bobby Leonard left and went to Minneapolis, and the Lakers actually drafted me while I was in the service, but I decided that I wanted to get my degree.\u00a0 So I went back to school and my name went back into the hat for the NBA Draft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You were the eighth overall selection in the 1957 NBA Draft, sight unseen, by the legendary Red Auerbach.<\/strong><\/p>\n To be quite honest, I was shocked when the Boston Celtics drafted me in the first round of the 1957 NBA Draft.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think many people knew who I was because I didn\u2019t play for a big program like Kansas or Kentucky.\u00a0 In fact, I was the first African-American from a black college to be drafted in the first round of any sport.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t feel like I had something to prove, but I carried burden on my shoulders that felt very similar to what Jackie Robinson must have felt.\u00a0 I wanted to succeed.\u00a0 I wanted to make good so that others could follow me, and so that the people in this country could see that we had some good basketball players in our black collegiate institutions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How did Red learn about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n The year that I was discharged from the army and returned to school, well, I want you to know that we had a hell of a season.\u00a0 We just simply had a good team.\u00a0 North Carolina Central always had good teams back then, even though it was a small, Division II school, but \u00a0that year we were particularly strong.\u00a0 Bones McKinney, who had played for Red Auerbach and who had also coached in the ACC, knew who I was because we were so good, and he played a big part in my becoming a Boston Celtic.\u00a0 It was during my senior season that Red called Bones McKinney and asked him who, in his opinion, was the best basketball player in the State of North Carolina.\u00a0 And he said, \u201cSam Jones.\u2019\u00a0 Red Auerbach didn\u2019t know anything about me [laughs], but he knew that that year UNC had won 32 straight games, had beat Kansas in triple-overtime for the NCAA championship, and had done so by beating a KU team featuring Wilt Chamberlain.\u00a0 This is 1957.\u00a0 This is the year that UNC had guys like Tommy Kearns and Lennie Rosenbluth \u2013 Rosenbluth averaged over 29 points-per-game that season and was named the Helms Foundation National Player of the Year.\u00a0 Red knew all of this because these were the big schools with proven programs, and that\u2019s why he really challenged Bones McKinney\u2019s evaluation.\u00a0 McKinney never wavered\u00a0 – he said the best player in the State of North Carolina was Sam Jones \u2013 and that was ultimately enough to convince Red.\u00a0 He ended up drafting me in the first round of the 1957 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ve read where you were disappointed to be chosen by the Celtics.<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019re right \u2013 I was disappointed that the Boston Celtics drafted me, because I really didn\u2019t want to go up there and play with \u2018em [laughs].\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to go with them because I felt that I wouldn\u2019t get to play.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I felt that I was good enough to play, but because the Celtics had just won their first world championship I didn\u2019t think I would even have a shot at making the team.\u00a0 People today don\u2019t realize this, but back them teams were only allowed to carry ten players on the active roster.\u00a0 My thinking was that Red wasn\u2019t going to cut anybody.\u00a0 I felt that he was going to be loyal to that team because it was the one that won his first world championship.\u00a0 Well, I thought it over and finally decided to give it a try, and the fella that I beat out for the last spot was coached by Bones McKinney.\u00a0 How ironic is that?\u00a0 His name was Dick Hemric.\u00a0 To me, it was almost unbelievable at the time.\u00a0 Hemric was a two-time ACC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year in \u201854 and \u201955.\u00a0 He set the conference scoring records that remained untouched for 50 years and was a member of Red\u2019s first championship team, so it was very special to beat out such a fine player for that last roster spot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After playing in small college gyms, what was it like to play in fabled arenas like the Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden? It was a big adjustment, believe me.\u00a0 All of a sudden, you\u2019re in these huge arenas.\u00a0 All of a sudden, you\u2019re looking at 18,000 people there to watch a basketball game, and you\u2019re a part of it.\u00a0 I remember playing in New York for the first time and performing at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0 As a rookie it was very intimidating.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to run out there, and the spotlight is on you. You just hear the noise. You feel like you\u2019re as small as an ant, and you\u2019re so nervous.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please tell me about the great Bill Russell \u2013 your relationship with him on the basketball court, and your friendship with him away from it.<\/strong><\/p>\n We still have that friendship, and we’ve stayed in contact with each other since retiring together following that last championship in 1969.\u00a0 I hate to say that because it sounds like the Marines, but\u00a0Bill Russell was determined to be the best that he could be.\u00a0\u00a0Whatever clich\u00e9 you want to pick, it just isn\u2019t a clich\u00e9 when you\u2019re talking about Bill Russell.\u00a0 He was so competitive and so committed to excellence that he tried to win every play, every possession.\u00a0 To me, what makes a player great is the ability to make the other players around him play better.\u00a0 Bill Russell did that.\u00a0 He was just an incredibly special basketball player, and nowhere was that more apparent than on defense.\u00a0 From the moment Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics and on up until today, he remains the greatest defensive player to ever play the game.\u00a0 And trust me, I do follow basketball \u2013 and I have not seen anyone that could block shots with the great timing that he had.\u00a0 It was unbelievable.\u00a0 And it was just a joy to play with him knowing that nobody you played was going into the lane and make a layup.\u00a0 Not as long as Bill Russell was the protector of that basket.\u00a0 He carried that level of play with him for thirteen years in the NBA, and I thank God that I had the opportunity to play basketball with him for twelve of those thirteen years.\u00a0 Between the two of us, we hold the record for championships.\u00a0 He won eleven and I won ten.\u00a0 There are only two players in NBA history to ever win more than ten championships, and that\u2019s Russell and I.\u00a0 You can talk about great players \u2013 you can talk about Michael Jordan all you want because he was a great player.\u00a0 But again, what makes a truly great player is a man who makes his teammates around him better.\u00a0 Nobody did that better than Bill Russell.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bill Russell\u2019s accomplishments are legendary.\u00a0 Take me behind the curtain \u2013 what was he like during practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bill Russell was not a practice player.\u00a0 He never wanted to practice.\u00a0 So what he would do \u2013 he would always come to practice, but he would block every shot he could contest.\u00a0 And I mean every shot.\u00a0 A layup, a fifteen foot jumper, it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t let anything go into the basket.\u00a0 Red did not like that, and the players did not like that, so we\u2019d put him off and let him sit down while the rest of us went on to have a good practice [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Celtics have retired a lot of numbers, most of them from those great Celtics teams that you played on. You couldn\u2019t have a better situation than I did, playing with guys like that.\u00a0 They were all so special\u00a0 – KC Jones, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Jim Loscutoff, Tom Heinsohn, and John Havlicek.\u00a0 It was unbelievable the way we played as a team, and I was really mad \u2013 yes, I\u2019m going to put it that way, I was really mad when they started picking entire teams for inclusion into the Hall of Fame.\u00a0 When I was inducted, one of my statements was that team sports were not about the individual, that sometimes forgotten are the players who may not make it to the Hall of Fame \u2013 which is the case with some of the players that I played with during my career with the Boston Celtics.\u00a0 So the day that I was inducted I said that my [Hall of Fame] ring was in honor of those players that I participated with who may never find themselves standing at that podium in Springfield.\u00a0 I also said that it was my wish that we could go in as a team.\u00a0 At that time the Hall of Fame had never inducted a team \u2013 but just a few years ago the first team to be included was the Harlem Globetrotters.\u00a0 And then, in 2007, Texas Western was inducted.\u00a0 If you saw the movie\u00a0Glory\u00a0<\/em>Road, you know that they won the 1966 NCAA National Championship and did so by becoming the first Division I school to start five African-American players.\u00a0 Not to take anything away from that, but I\u2019ve always thought that we should have went into the Hall of Fame as a team.\u00a0 I went to eleven NBA Finals in my twelve years in the league, and we won ten championships.\u00a0 You\u2019ll never see that again \u2013 that will never happen, unless God gets his own team [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You had a special situation in Boston. It truly was special.\u00a0 The whole time I was there we never signed a no-cut contract.\u00a0 We just played because we loved the game.\u00a0 And we even loved it better because we had Bill Russell and we had Bob Cousy, who was way ahead of his time.\u00a0 When you looked at John Stockton, you would think that John Stockton was a clone of Bob Cousy.\u00a0 Having those guys around was a luxury that very few teams could ever claim.\u00a0 Cousy was a magician with the basketball, and Russell was the greatest defensive player – and the greatest winner \u2013 the NBA has ever seen.<\/p>\n I remember my third year with the Celtics, and Coach Auerbach bringing me in and saying that I had a green light to shoot the basketball.\u00a0 I\u2019d heard about the green light to shoot, and it was only granted if Auerbach had the trust in a player\u2019s scoring ability.\u00a0 You could shoot it anytime you wanted to.\u00a0 I said, \u2018Coach, what did you say?\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018You\u2019ve got the green light, and that gives you a lot of responsibility.\u2019\u00a0 So I felt kind of\u00a0 special then [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In those days, the Celtics made frequent preseason barnstorming tours throughout New England.\u00a0 Did you ever experience Red\u2019s driving firsthand? Don\u2019t even talk about that \u2013 I rode with him once and I got straight out of the car [laughs].\u00a0 No, no, no, no [laughs].\u00a0 You know how the rookies were supposed to ride with certain people \u2013 well, I wanted to ride with Bill Russell.\u00a0 He was safe.\u00a0 You know Red \u2013 there was no telling where Red was going, or if he was going to make it there in one piece [laughs].\u00a0 From then on I never volunteered to ride with Red.\u00a0 Besides, when I joined the team Russell was the only black player on the roster.\u00a0 The joke during my rookie season was that I made the team because Russell needed somebody to talk to [laughs].\u00a0 I didn\u2019t room with Russell that much, I roomed with Frank Ramsey and sometimes with Tommy Heinsohn.\u00a0 Those barnstorming tours were something else \u2013 you\u2019d play the same team every night, maybe the Minneapolis Lakers, and by the end of the thing you were ready to kill each other [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The bank shot was your calling card, as deadly a weapon as Kareem\u2019s skyhook, but you don\u2019t see players shooting it as much today?\u00a0 What has happened to the bank shot?<\/strong><\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t really gone anywhere, I just don\u2019t think that it\u2019s being taught like it used to be taught.\u00a0 I think the three-point shot has\u00a0something to do with that, because it really has hurt the intermediate jumper.\u00a0 Coaches today are stressing the three pointer, kids see it on television, and as a result the mid-range jumper has been lost.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s a mistake.<\/p>\n One of the greatest teachers of the bank shot was John Wooden at UCLA.\u00a0 Most of his kids had that shot.\u00a0 Tim Duncan is still shooting the bank shot, and he\u2019s going to go down as one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA.\u00a0 He shoots it with pretty good accuracy, and I think he prefers that mid-range bank shot over a flashy slam dunk.\u00a0 In that respect he\u2019s a throwback of sorts.\u00a0 Scottie Pippen used that shot quite a bit as well.\u00a0 But those guys are the exceptions to the rule.\u00a0 I just think the bank shot is one of the most effective shots you could use on the court, within a certain range.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In tight game situations you were known to stay away from the huddles during timeouts. What was that about, and did you demand the basketball in those crucial situations?<\/strong><\/p>\n No, I didn\u2019t demand the basketball.\u00a0 The impetus came from Red Auerbach.\u00a0 He took all the pressure off of the players \u2013 in those tight games where you needed that one shot, he would call timeout, pull us all together and call the play for me.\u00a0 As we\u2019re coming off the court he\u2019d say, \u2018We\u2019re running the two play for Sam Jones\u2019, or \u2018We\u2019re going to run the four play for Sam Jones.\u2019\u00a0 I had quite a few plays designed for me to get a shot off.\u00a0 I knew when we ran those plays that we were going to have an open shot.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t\u2019 that I\u2019d stay away from the huddle, but the play had already been called.\u00a0 I was just waiting for the gong to be sounded so that we could go back out on the court [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please tell me about two greats that you played against \u2013 Jerry West and Oscar Robertson. Jerry West and Oscar Robertson were tremendous basketball players.\u00a0 They were probably the two greatest guards to ever play the game, at least until guys like Magic, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant came along.\u00a0 Jerry and Oscar, because of their athleticism and knowledge, could still play the game at an All-Star level today.\u00a0 They could play with anybody.\u00a0 Jerry West just came out wanting to win.\u00a0 He had that attitude, the one that screams \u2018I want to win.\u2019\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t\u2019 for the Boston Celtics he would have probably ended up winning six or seven rings.\u00a0 We went up against the Lakers year-after-year-after-year and it was not easy beating us.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t happen very often, I\u2019ll put it that way.<\/p>\n One more story about Jerry West \u2013 we were in the playoffs and preparing to play the Lakers for the championship.\u00a0 Jerry and the Lakers had the best team ever; really, they were just winning like mad and killing their opponents.\u00a0 That\u2019s how much talent they had.\u00a0 Before we go out to L.A. I learn that I\u2019ve got to guard Jerry West.\u00a0 So in practice I\u2019m guarding John Havlicek, and I knew that Jerry couldn\u2019t run like John.\u00a0 I say this because I knew I was going to need all of the preparation in the world to keep up with Jerry.\u00a0 He was that tremendous.\u00a0 Well, we get out to L.A., and we\u2019ve a really good guy on our roster \u2013 and guy by the name of Emmette Bryant.\u00a0 He looks at Russell and says, \u2018Russell, I\u2019ve got Jerry West tonight.\u2019\u00a0 And I said, \u2018Good \u2013 and thank God.\u00a0 You can have him.\u2019\u00a0 Russell put me on him anyway [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was it like playing for Red Auerbach?<\/strong><\/p>\n Red had a simple system that you had to adapt to. When you play under a coach that doesn’t over-complicate things, it truly makes things that much easier.\u00a0 That’s one thing.\u00a0 The other thing that I liked about playing under Red was that he felt that you shouldn’t come to camp to get into shape. \u00a0He felt you should stay in shape all year so that the day training camp opens, you were ready to play the first game.\u00a0 His training camps were much more demanding than playing the actual games themselves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Red Auerbach retired following an eighth consecutive NBA Championship in 1966, and Bill Russell was Red\u2019s choice to take over as player\/coach.<\/strong><\/p>\n I had the pleasure of playing with Bill Russell for twelve years, and when I first joined the Celtics I lived with Russell and his family \u2013 I stayed with him until I made the team and knew that I could afford a place of my own.\u00a0 We became great friends, but honestly, it was more like family.\u00a0 It was a great chemistry that carried over onto the court.\u00a0 And then years later, after I had moved out he had went on to become the head coach, I learned that half of the time I could do nothing right.\u00a0 That\u2019s what becoming a head coach can do to a friendship [laughs].\u00a0 Seriously though, Bill Russell was the only man who could possibly follow Red Auerbach as head coach of the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As you\u2019ve said, Bill Russell won 11 NBA Championships in thirteen seasons.\u00a0 You won ten titles in twelve years.\u00a0 Many of those championships were won in the tightest of games, and with the pressure dialed way up.\u00a0 How were the Celtics able to thrive under such intense championship pressure?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll answer that with a story.\u00a0 We were in Game 7 of an NBA Finals, and Bill Russell was the coach.\u00a0 The game was tight late in the game, and Russell called timeout.\u00a0 We all gather together on the sideline, and Russell says, \u2018Okay guys, we\u2019re going to run a six.\u2019\u00a0 Now, the six play is for Bill Russell \u2013 the worst shooter on our team [laughs].\u00a0 So he calls the six play and of course it doesn\u2019t work, but we get the rebound and call timeout.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ve got about thirteen seconds left in the game.\u00a0 Russell says, \u2018Okay guys, we\u2019re going to run the seven play.\u2019\u00a0 So we run the seven play that that doesn\u2019t work, either.\u00a0 We get another rebound and call our last timeout.\u00a0 We get together in the huddle, and all of us realize that there is a lot of pressure \u2013 we didn\u2019t leave school early like kids do today.\u00a0 We graduated [smiles].\u00a0 To a man we knew that there was less than ten seconds left and that we needed to score if we were going to walk off the court as champions.\u00a0 Russell gathers us together and says, \u2018Okay guys, we ran the six play and that didn\u2019t work.\u00a0 We ran the seven play and that didn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Six and seven equals fourteen.\u00a0 Let\u2019s run the fourteen play.\u2019\u00a0 We run the fourteen play and sure enough it works \u2013 we win the championship.\u00a0 We get back to the locker room and all the media is swarming around.\u00a0 Someone asks, \u2018Russell, what play did you run?\u2019\u00a0 He says, \u2018Oh God, we ran the seven play and it didn\u2019t work, we ran the six play and it didn\u2019t work \u2013 seven and six equals fourteen, so we ran that play and we won the game.\u2019\u00a0 So the news writers were scratching their heads \u2013 and one of them good-naturedly asks, \u2018Russell, where did you graduate from?\u2019\u00a0 Russell hadn\u2019t caught on.\u00a0 He says, \u2018Oh, USF \u2013 the University of San Francisco.\u2019 The writer smiles and says, \u2018Well, where we come from seven and six equals thirteen.\u2019\u00a0 Well, let me tell you something \u2013 Havlicek didn\u2019t know it, I didn\u2019t know it\u2026nobody standing in the huddle at that point in time, when that play was called, knew that seven and six equaled fourteen.\u00a0 That\u2019s what pressure is all about.\u00a0 We were so focused on the play that was called, and on executing that play to win a championship, that we weren\u2019t aware of Russell\u2019s little adding problem [laughs].<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Celtics played the Lakers for the 1969 NBA Championship.\u00a0 What memories stand out after all these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably the fourth game of the series \u2013 there were seven seconds to go in the game, and we were losing by a point. \u00a0If we lost this game, we’d go to Los Angeles down 3 games to 1.\u00a0 We called a timeout, and Russell called a play for me.\u00a0 Later, he told me he almost didn’t call it because it was my last season and he said that people always remember the one you missed.\u00a0 ‘But I made it, and I knew it was good from the time it left my hand. \u00a0It rolled right over the cylinder. \u00a0We won the game and went on to win the championship.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Final Question:\u00a0 You\u2019ve achieved great success in your life.\u00a0 If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that be?<\/strong><\/p>\n God gives everyone in this life a gift.\u00a0 Find out what it is, and use it well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: \u00a0Michael D. McClellan |\u00a0Imagine: The greatest athletic deal-closer of the twentieth century is celebrated endlessly, his name floating atop every all-time championship list and dropped into every serious debate over who has exerted the greatest influence on their sport, his close personal friendships awash in celebrity, royalty and head-of-state chutzpah. His likeness is iconic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[774,773],"tags":[753],"class_list":["post-8034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics-dynasty","category-featured-interview","tag-sam-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.celtic-nation.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/basketball.png\")
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