K. C. Jones

K. C. Jones is one of eight American men (through 2020) to have played on an Olympic champion, an NCAA champion, and an NBA champion, and is one of the most titled players in basketball history. Jones’ career began at the University of San Francisco, which won NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956 – although Jones missed the 1956 tourney due to an eligibility technicality.

After college Jones played for nine years in the NBA, the first eight of which saw his Boston Celtics win the NBA Championship. He played his entire college, Olympic, and professional career as a teammate of Bill Russell, and although Russell was often given credit for all the championships, K. C. Jones was the exact same type of player. He was the ultimate team player and a defensive stalwart, playing in the NBA thru 1967, always with the Celtics. Celtics coach Red Auerbach said of him, “The biggest thing you can say about K. C. Jones is that he’s a winner.”

Jones went into coaching, initially as head coach of Brandeis University, near Boston. He later became a coach in the NBA from 1972 thru 1991, winning NBA Championships as head coach with the Celtics in 1984 and 1986, and winning two NBA titles as an assistant coach, one with the Celtics and one with the Lakers. Jones was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. At his death, the Celtics issued a statement that said, in part, “Where K.C. Jones went, winning was sure to follow,” and that “K.C. also demonstrated that one could be both a fierce competitor and a gentleman in every sense of the word.”