When Red Auerbach came down to Chapel Hill to scout the 1957 UNC team, an old player of his, Bones McKinney, told him that the best player in the Triangle (it wasn’t called that then but anyway) wasn’t in Chapel Hill but in Durham.
And he wasn’t a Duke player.
And, he told Auerbach, “Red, he’s got the damndest bank shot you’ve ever seen.”
Sam Jones played at NCCU, then called North Carolina College, but like much of America, college basketball was still segregated in the 1950’s and the Eagles weren’t on the national radar very much.
Auerbach agreed with McKinney and drafted Jones in 1957, one year after taking Bill Russell.
He came off the bench with KC Jones for a few years while Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman started in the backcourt but later in the 1960’s, after Cousy and Sharman had retired, the duo emerged as one of the absolute best backcourts in NBA history.
Jones in particular was a tremendous clutch player. Bill Russell says that in six of their championship seasons, Jones was asked to take the winning shot in the final game, and he made them all.
He was a brilliant talent who is somewhat overlooked today, but his career testifies to his greatness: Jones ended up winning 10 rings, just one less than Russell’s record 11.