December 31, 2021

SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 4 comments

Happy new year owlhouse.

The dude is a day ahead of the rest of us.

posted by beaverboard at 10:16 AM on December 31, 2021

HBCU legend and the greatest basketball player to come out of Wilmington, NC, Sam Jones, has died at 88. I'll leave it to our resident New Englanders to wax nostalgic over him.

posted by NoMich at 07:07 PM on December 31, 2021

Wax nostalgic indeed. I was at the Celtics vs Suns matinee yesterday, and they had the usual moment of silence. I admit that I was nearly in tears. I remember watching him many times during my teens and early 20s in the old Boston Garden. On the fast break it would go something like Russell to K C Jones. Sam Jones would fill the wing to the left, and when the defender moved to stop the ball, KC would flip to Sam who would stop about 10 to 15 feet out on the left side for the quick jump shot off the glass. He almost never missed that shot.

I had to look this up, but he was originally drafted by the Lakers. Because he had to fulfill a military obligation, and then returned to college, the Lakers lost their draft rights. Red Auerbach was in North Carolina scouting players in the area, and former Wake Forest coach Bones McKinney, a friend of Auerbach, told him that the best player in the state was not at Chapel Hill, but was at North Carolina College (now NC Central). Auerbach picked him at #8 in the first round without ever having seen him play.

After his NBA career, Jones coached for some years. He finished his working life as a substitute teacher in Maryland.

posted by Howard_T at 02:06 PM on January 01, 2022

You're not logged in. Please log in or register.