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Visitor Article by Dan Kelly
Final week the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame introduced their candidates for the Class of 2024. It’s comprehensible if anybody missed the announcement. The headline candidates included Vince Carter and the 2008 Crew USA “Redeem Crew.” Former Boston Celtics head coach Okay.C. Jones was not amongst these included.
To Jerry Colangelo and the Corridor of Fame committee, it’s means past time to clarify yourselves concerning this obtrusive omission.
To be clear: Okay.C. Jones 100% deserves to not merely be a candidate for the Corridor of Fame as a coach, he deserved to be enshrined way back. Him remaining on the surface stays unjustifiable. Nevertheless, a go searching makes it extra obvious what Colangelo is as much as.
The Corridor of Fame candidates got here from six totally different classes. The breakdown:
36 North American Nominees
11 Girls’s Nominees
30 Contributor Nominees
24 Worldwide Nominees
11 Girls’s Veterans Nominees
40 Veteran’s Nominees
For these holding observe, there are 152 candidates to be within the Class of 2024. So why isn’t coach Okay.C. Jones one in all them? It’s actually not as a consequence of a scarcity of worthiness. A fast evaluate of his teaching profession makes that painfully apparent.
Okay.C. Jones Pivots to a Teaching
Following his Corridor of Fame taking part in profession with the Boston Celtics, Okay.C. Jones started a second profession as a basketball coach. He joined the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach for the 1972 season. The Lakers gained the NBA Championship. In his first season on the bench, Jones already had his first championship ring as a coach. Two years later, Jones had his first head teaching alternative within the NBA.
Washington Years (1974-to-1976)
Okay.C. Jones was employed for the 1973-1974 season to educate the Capital Bullets (who would change their identify to the Washington Bullets the next season). He remained as head coach in Washington for 3 seasons. His groups went a mixed 155-91 (62.2 profitable proportion). Washington reached the 1975 NBA Finals, earlier than in the end falling to the Golden State Warriors. A 12 months later, Jones was fired following a 48-win season and seven-game elimination within the playoffs. Practically 50 years later, Okay.C. Jones remains to be Washington’s all-time chief is each profitable proportion and wins over .500 (32).
Return to Boston (1978-1983)
After being fired by Washington, Jones returned to being an NBA assistant. He spent one 12 months with the Milwaukee Bucks earlier than returning to his taking part in house with the Boston Celtics. He spent six seasons as an assistant coach in Boston. The non-interim head coaches throughout these years have been Tommy Heinsohn (Corridor of Fame coach), Tom Sanders (Corridor of Fame contributor), and Invoice Fitch (Corridor of Fame coach). The 1981 Boston Celtics gained the NBA Championship. Okay.C. Jones picked up his second ring as an NBA assistant coach.
Celtics Head Coach (1984-1988)
After Invoice Fitch left to educate the Houston Rockets, Okay.C. Jones was promoted to go coach of the Boston Celtics earlier than the 1983—1984 season. Even with probably the most profitable franchise in NBA historical past, it was troublesome to be way more profitable than Okay.C. Jones. In his 5 years as Celtics head coach, the staff went to 4 NBA Finals and gained twice. The 1984 and 1986 groups each raised banners within the Boston Backyard below Jones’ watch. The 1986 staff is taken into account one of many biggest in NBA historical past. They amassed 67 common season wins earlier than going 15-3 within the playoffs. Their head coach: Okay.C. Jones.
Jones was changed following the 1988 season. It’s not usually a head coach wins 57 video games, reaches the Jap Convention Finals, and nonetheless will get fired, however that’s precisely what occurred to Jones. Following his departure, the Boston Celtics wouldn’t attain the NBA Finals for one more 20 years. He would coach two seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics (.500 each years)in his closing head teaching job within the NBA.
Okay.C. Jones has the best profitable proportion in each the common season (.751) and NBA Playoffs (.637) in Boston Celtics historical past. This can be a franchise with Corridor of Fame head coaches Pink Auerbach, Invoice Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, and Invoice Fitch. All of them are deservingly within the Corridor of Fame. Why isn’t Okay.C. Jones?
How is Okay.C. Jones Not within the Corridor of Fame?
Statistics to point out what an injustice Coach Okay.C. Jones being ignored of the Basketball Corridor of Fame embody:
There are solely six NBA head coaches to succeed in greater than three NBA Finals. The one retired head coach not within the Corridor of Fame is Okay.C. Jones , who did it 5 occasions.
All through NBA historical past, of each head coach with not less than 500 wins, Okay.C. Jones has the second greatest profitable proportion (.674). He trails solely Corridor of Fame coach Phil Jackson (.704).
There are 11 retired head coaches who gained a number of NBA Championships. Ten are within the Corridor of Fame. The opposite? Okay.C. Jones.
When the NBA celebrated turning 75 in 2022, they revealed a listing of the 15 biggest coaches in NBA historical past. Of the 12 coaches who weren’t lively, 11 are within the Basketball Corridor of Fame. The opposite? Okay.C. Jones.
Reward From Invoice Walton
If anybody learn the above-section and remains to be not offered, Corridor of Fame participant Invoice Walton lately paid his former head coach the best praise. Walton gained two NBA titles throughout his taking part in profession, because the star of the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, and the sixth man on the 1986 Boston Celtics. (notice: the top coach of that 1977 Portland staff, Jack Ramsay, is within the Corridor of Fame).
In school Invoice Walton performed for legendary head coach John Picket at UCLA. He gained two Nationwide Championships and three Participant of the 12 months Awards in his three seasons. Picket gained 10 NCAA Championships at UCLA. He’s held in excessive esteem by many, however maybe no one greater than Invoice Walton. That is what Walton needed to say this previous week about Okay.C. Jones.
“Okay.C. Jones was the neatest, most sort particular person, and an amazing coach. He was the closest coach I ever needed to John Picket.”
No small reward to say the least. So the query stays, why is Okay.C. Jones not within the Basketball Corridor of Fame as a coach? When Corridor of Fame sportswriter Peter Vecsey was requested about this, he pointed to Jerry Colangelo,
What Does Jerry Colangelo Have In opposition to Okay.C. Jones?
It’s laborious to think about anyone having a grudge in opposition to Okay.C. Jones. Larry Chicken mentioned of his former coach, “Okay.C. (Jones) is the nicest human being I’ve ever met in my life.” So why does Jerry Colangelo appear set on holding him out of Springfield? There are just a few prospects.
Colangelo has served because the Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame since 2009. He had beforehand elected himself, as a contributor for his years as an NBA govt, in 2004. Throughout his time because the Chairman of the Corridor, Colangelo was ran the Phoenix Suns from 1968 to 1994. Throughout that point, the Suns reached the NBA Finals twice, by no means profitable a championship. So maybe, as a Corridor of Fame govt with no rings, Colangelo is just not swayed by a coach with two titles as a head coach, one other two as an assistant, and 5 NBA Finals journeys as a head coach on his resume.
Jerry Colangelo additionally owned the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from 1997 to 2003. In addition they gained no championships below Colangelo’s watch.
Since Colangelo turned HOF Chairman in 2009, there have been 9 former Phoenix Suns gamers, and two Phoenix Suns “contributors” inducted to the Corridor of Fame. Among the many 2024 candidates are three Suns gamers, and several other contributors. And about these contributors…
Colangelo’s Contributor Loophole
One of many wonderful issues to find whereas learning the Basketball Corridor of Fame, particularly below Jerry Colangelo’s watch, is the usage of the “contributor” class to shoehorn in sure candidates.
Longtime Phoenix Suns head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons was inducted into the Corridor of Fame as a contributor within the Class of 2021. Fitzsimmons’ Corridor of Fame web page even mentions his relationship with Jerry Colangelo. It is extremely clear that Fitzsimmons was being inducted as a coach, as that’s the focus of each his basketball profession, and the writeup. Nevertheless, he was inducted as a “contributor” after having gained 51.8% of his 1607 NBA video games as a head coach. Fitzsimmons groups by no means reached the NBA Finals.
If Cotton Fitzsimmons was nominated as a coach, a comparability to someone like Okay.C. Jones might need stored him out. However Cotton Fitzsimmons was posthumously inducted into the Corridor of Fame as a contributor, and no one batted an eye fixed.
There are different contributors who’re actually coaches inducted into the Corridor of Fame throughout Colangelo’s tenure. These embody Del Harris and Al Attles. Contributors on this 12 months’s poll embody Doug Collins, Mike Fratello, and Pink Kerr (Colangelo’s first head coach as GM of the Suns). There are additionally a lot of highschool and school coaches on this class. However for some cause, highschool and school coaches get extra consideration than some of the profitable coaches in basketball’s most elite league?
To be clear, there is no such thing as a objection to Cotton Fitzsimmons, Pink Kerr, or anybody else being inducted into the Basketball Corridor of Fame. Maybe if Okay.C. Jones was not within the Corridor of Fame as a participant, he’d have been inducted as a contributor way back himself. However Okay.C. Jones was a Corridor of Fame participant, and he deserves to be a Corridor of Fame coach.
It’s Not Too Late to Make Issues Proper
Sadly, Okay.C. Jones handed away on Christmas Day, 2020. He died on Dec. 25, becoming for the person who has 25 hanging from the rafters of TD Backyard in his honor. Jerry Colangelo and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame disadvantaged Okay.C. Jones of with the ability to attend his personal enshrinement as a coach, regardless of being some of the profitable head coaches in NBA historical past. Nevertheless, his spouse and youngsters deserve the chance to nonetheless have fun the consideration after his passing.
Maybe Jerry Colangelo has forgotten Okay.C. Jones over time, however not everybody has.
Possibly every part has labored out precisely because it was meant to be. The person identified for sporting 25, earlier than changing into a profitable NBA coach, can nonetheless be inducted into the Corridor of Fame. Ignorance from the committee is now not a legitimate excuse.
Okay.C. Jones clearly must be a part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame Class of 2025.
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