Looking to repeat as NBA World Champions, the Celtics won 60 games and collected their fourth straight Atlantic Division title in the 1974-75 season behind All-Stars John Havlicek and Paul Silas. But the Celtics came up short in the 1975 Eastern Conference Finals when they ran into Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes of the Washington […]

K.C. Jones, Bill Russell and John Havlicek walked off the Boston Garden court after a 1967 game. Prior to the Celtics, Jones and Russell were teammates at the University of San Francisco and guided the team to two straight NCAA championships. Jones retired following the 1966-67 season after helping his longtime teammate Russell navigate his […]

K.C. Jones stood beside his induction display at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Inducted as a player, Jones won eight NBA World Championship titles on the court, as well as four more as a coach. Despite the accolades, Jones was surprised by the honor. “This is the sort of thing […]

K.C. Jones defended future Hall-of-Famer Hal Greer of the Syracuse Nationals during a game in 1962. In the early days of their careers, K.C. Jones and teammate Sam Jones would substitute off the bench for star guards Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman. Said Cousy, “They not only sustain a lead, they add to it. And […]

At 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, K.C. Jones could out-muscle most guards of his day, but the story was always a little different when challenging big men like Wilt Chamberlain. Jones once said of Chamberlain giving him a hard foul: “He stopped me dead in my tracks with his arm, hugged me and lifted me off […]

Head Coach K.C. Jones listened during a timeout on the Celtics bench alongside Assistant Coach Jimmy Rodgers. Danny Ainge remembered about Jones: “He was just a real guy. He knew what to say. He’d been through it all as a player and as a coach, playing on a team at high expectations…He did a fantastic […]

After a second-straight disappointing playoff run, Boston made a coaching change in 1983 and turned to former player K.C. Jones. He had been a Celtics assistant coach for six years and previously took the Washington Bullets to the 1975 NBA Finals as the team’s head coach. Jones was the man for the job as he […]

In a series for the ages, the Celtics prevailed over the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals. K.C. Jones controlled Game 7 by dishing out a game-high 10 assists and scoring six points, but most importantly he shut down Hal Greer of the Sixers. Jones held Greer to just 12 points, half of […]

With a team full of superstars, K.C. Jones’ best trait as Celtics head coach was his ability to relate to his players. Red Auerbach said of Jones, “You never hear him say, ‘This is my team.’ It’s always our team.” Auerbach later added that “K.C. never coached out of fear. He coached out of confidence.” […]

An excellent defender, K.C. Jones was not the man you wanted to try and back down as Jerry Chambers of the Los Angeles Lakers found out. The NFL’s Los Angeles Rams originally drafted Jones in 1955, and after a two-year stint in the Army, Jones returned to the Rams for a tryout in 1958, fearing […]