The other day, Celtic legend Sam Jones passed away.
That being said, Sam Jones has ten championship rings.
He entered the industry a year later than Russell and retired the same year. Basically accompanied Russell throughout his career, good luck: Russell's eleven rings, he caught up with ten.
But these ten did not come out of thin air.
Out of ten winners:
He is the lead scorer for three of the championship teams.
He is the second-leading scorer for three of the championship teams.
Is the number three scorer for one of the championship teams.
In the time of Bill Russell, the Celts had a heritage. For example, in the organization of defenders, Cush was connected to KC Jones; in the forward position, Heinthorne was connected to Hafrichek.
Jones took on Bill Shaman's mantle: a cool shooter.
Speaking of Sam Jones, we generally say: He was duncan's favorite guy to shoot on the board.
We all know that those who love to play board and shoot, Duncan, Wade, Jordan in the Wizards, Dirk, Scola, are all solid basic skills.
So was Jones.
Solid, steady, high starting jumper.
And it's not an old-school catch-and-shoot basket.
He can hold the ball and twist himself to shoot strongly.
You can also shake the back of the board throw.
You can also catch a rebound in the front court and adjust the high shot point to shoot.
It was the 1960s, but he already had very modern shots.
He was also well-rounded: he could be the team's vice-bearer and was temporarily sent inside in Game 6 of the 1968 Finals to play Guderic in the back.
At a glance: he's a very modern point guard.
This shooting action and habit is not outdated now.
Plus he also wears the size 24, combined with his shaking, shot adjustments and the like, if you think of another number 24, it is probably not surprising...
Of course, his personality is not the same as the most famous number 24 in history:
He was going to be much more silent.
Because he was such a calm and solid defender, the Cardinal gave him some strange tasks.
The following is an excerpt from my own "When the Basketball Stars Shine"...
In his third year in 1960, Jones was a substitute for Bill Shaman.
In the seventh game of that year's Finals, the Cardinal boldly used him. On such a life-and-death stage, he did not look at the moment, scoring 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting in 25 minutes, and the team won the championship.
In the 1961-62 season, the season in which Chamberlain averaged 50 points per game and 100 points per game, he led the Warriors and Celtics to play seventh.
In the final 16 seconds of the game, Chamberlain hit the 22nd point of the game, hanging the score at 107 draws, and then Sam Jones made a signature scrub to make the Celtics 109-107 win.
His feud with Chamberlain had only just begun.
By the way, since that year, the Cardinals have been teasing Chamberlain with Jones's shots: You don't want to come out, right? I'll vote for you. Not counting, and trash talk.
So much so that something went wrong in that series:
There was a 22-year-old in Ohio that year, and both basketball forwards and rugby receivers played at a professional level. He decided to go to Boston Garden to see the game, to decide whether he would play in the NBA or play football.
He went to the Boston Garden, where he had won four championships in five years, won three consecutive titles, and was about to win four consecutive championships, and found that the ceiling was high (three meters) and low (one meter eight) on one side. In the dressing room, the players had no ball closet, only a nail hanging from the jersey.
He got to the sidelines and happened to see the Celtics playing the 76ers. Russell vs Chamberlain. Chamberlain was derided by Sam Jones's trash talk that day and was about to chase Jones when Jones picked up the bench in self-defense. Guy Rogers, they were fighting. So the young man thought:
"Oh my Goodness! I'm in hell!! ”
- This young man is another legendary Haflicek of the Celts...
- In turn, Jones dared to provoke Chamberlain head-on, and was not afraid of being beaten by Chamberlain: fights and brawls were common in those years, and Chamberlain was a head high on him, and no one could stop going crazy. But Jones still confronted Chamberlain, throwing taunts.
This is Sam Jones.
That year, the Celtics and The Lakers played in the Finals, and in game 5, Elgin Baylor blasted down the 61 points recorded in the Finals so far, taking the Lakers to a 3-2 championship point.
But in game six, the Celtics were on the edge of the cliff, Russell played a full 48 minutes, 19 points, 24 rebounds and 10 assists in a triple-double, and the Lakers West and Baylor each had 34 points. And the Celtics side: Jones 35 points.
The Celtics dragged into game seven and eventually won the title.
The following year, in the 1963 Eastern Conference Finals, Oscar Robertson led the Royals to force the Celtics into game seven.
The Celtics adopted a strange strategy in Game Seven: they stopped pinching big O, allowing him to score, just locking the rest of the Royals. The result was just 11 assists for the Royals team.
In contrast, the retiring Cush played 21 points and 16 assists, and Russell had 20 points and 24 rebounds.
Because he was not caught in the middle, big O relied on the signature breakthrough and back to reach 22 free throws and shoot down 43 points.
But on the Celtic side, Sam Jones scored 47 points on 18-of-27 shooting.
The Celtics won 142-131 in this quick-forward battle to advance to the Finals.
In game seven of the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals, when LeBron and Pierce scored 45 and 41 points against each other at Boston Garden, the Boston media recalled the game.
We all know that in 1965, the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers played game seven and produced the famous "Hafricek break". In that game, Chamberlain had 30 points and 32 rebounds, russell had 15 points, 29 rebounds and 8 assists, but the Celtics actually relied on Jones's 37 points to drag into the final minute.
In 1966, the Celtics against the Royals, the fifth game of the decider, Oscar was 37 points again, but Jones also had 34 points to face him. The Celtics won again.
In Game 7 of the 1966 Finals, with 25 seconds left, the Lakers saw themselves trying to force out the Celtics' timeout violation, Sam Jones made a jump shot, and the Celtics won 95-93.
This is the result of an unprecedented eight consecutive championships.
In 1968, the Celtics trailed the Philadelphia 76ers 1-3, then led the team by 37 points in the fifth game, and finally completed the legendary comeback - the first time in history that the team could fall behind 1-3 and still overturn three cities in a row.
By the time of the 1968 Finals, Sam Jones was nearly 35 years old. Ten years ago, the young man who wrote a diary every day to calculate what time he came to the team every day to shoot the board, now he must give the task of attacking ace to Havlicek. Jones' speed was no longer enough for him to break through.
In the sixth game, he was unable to score until Russell called him forward and put Havlicek in charge. Goodrich was forced to go inside to deal with Jones. It was Russell's trick: he knew That Goodrich was 185 centimeters tall and couldn't hide Jones in the penalty area. After Jones's signature scrub shot, Coach Colf had to replace Goodrich. West injured his ankle, so the Lakers attacked the engine and stopped.
Even when he is old, Jones can still be used as a key tactical pawn.
In the last seven seconds of game four of the 1969 Finals, the Lakers led 88-87. As long as the Celtics don't score, the Lakers can take a 3-1 lead, and the championship is within reach.
In the final round, Havlicek, Sigfried and Howell set up a tactic known as "Ohio": three people stacked the Wall of Arhats to create cover.
Sam Jones, one of the best masters of playing the board ever, made a jump shot that crossed Chamberlain's fingertips.
Hit the front basket, bounce the back basket, and then fall into the basket. 89-88, the Celtics put the point difference to 2-2.
And finally won the 1969 championship:
Jones' tenth, Russell's eleventh.
Throughout the 1960s, Jones was no top defender: throughout the 1960s, he was considered inferior to West and Oscar. truly. Oscar's all-round command, West's magical shooting and offensive and defensive dual abilities, Jones does not have.
But he played countless seventh games with West, Oscar and Chamberlain, scoring countless cold key goals.
Listed above for his legendary moments, see how many seventh games, how many finals?
He wasn't as brilliant as Oscar and West, but he was silent and steady.
How stable is it?
From the 1962 Finals to the 1968 Finals, there were six championships, and in all the playoff series, Sam Jones did not have a single series with an average of less than 20 points per game.
He never lost a seventh game. In the seventh of all nine games played, he averaged 27 points per game.
Cussi, Shaman, and Heinthorne followed Russell in the first half, Haflicek wanted to continue to support the Celtics after Russell retired, and only Jones was almost the same as Russell.
Russell was responsible for defensive rebounding and leadership, and Jones scored those magical shots in key games.
He wasn't a genius, but he was Russell's royal wing from beginning to end.
Ten overall titles.
Ten sturdy championships.