K.C. Jones, one of the greats from the Boston Celtics, died at age 88 on Friday. The cause of death was Alzheimer’s Disease according to the Associated Press.
Jones played with the Celtics from 1958 to 1967. He then won two NBA Finals with the Celtics as their head coach in 1984 and 1986.
It is interesting that Jones reached the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989 even though he never reached double digits in points at any time in the regular season of his nine-year NBA career, and was never an all-star. The most number of points Jones had in a season was 9.2 points in the 1961-62 season.
However, what Jones was able to accomplish as a member of the Celtics was extraordinary. He was part of eight Celtics teams that won NBA Championships. Only Bill Russell (11), and Sam Jones (10), won more NBA Finals than K.C. Jones. In the 1965 NBA Playoffs, Jones did average 10.1 points per game.
After Jones retired in 1966-67, he had an extensive career as a head coach in the NBA. In addition to coaching the Celtics from 1983 to 1988, Jones was the head coach of the Capital/Washington Bullets from 1973 to 1976, and with the Seattle Supersonics from 1990 to 1992. He had a regular season career record of 522 wins and 252 losses for a very impressive winning percentage of .672.
In addition to starring for the Celtics, Jones won a gold medal with the United States at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne with his future Celtics teammate, Bill Russell. In the gold medal game, the United States beat the Soviet Union 89-55.
Jones is one of three former Celtics players who died in 2020, and played for them in the 1960s. The others were John Thompson, who died on August 30, and Tom Heinsohn, who died on November 9.
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