Jones had supreme confidence in that shot. As he put it, “I felt it was like making a layup.”
Samuel Jones was born on June 24, 1933, in Wilmington, N.C. At North Carolina College, playing for the Hall of Fame coach John B. McLendon in a Division II program, he was a fine shooter, scoring a total of 1,170 points, and an outstanding rebounder.
Auerbach had never seen Jones play in college. But he drafted him when Bones McKinney, a North Carolinian and one of Auerbach’s former players, raved about him. Jones had planned to become a teacher but tried his luck at the Celtics’ training camp.
He was a reserve for several seasons before taking over for Sharman. Though he was 6-foot-4, tall for a guard at the time, he was quicker than many smaller guards.
When he saw Russell about to snare an offensive rebound, Jones would move away from the man defending him, who was watching the ball, and get ready to snare a pass from Russell and convert it into a bank shot. As he told NBA.com, “You only need a second to get a shot off.”
Jones retired from the Celtics in 1969 and was later head coach at Federal City College in Washington (now the University of the District of Columbia) and at North Carolina Central. He was an assistant coach for the N.B.A.’s New Orleans Jazz.