07-05-2007, 04:26 AM
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#22 (permalink)
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Player
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 879
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Re: K.C. Jones is a joke
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Originally Posted by Sunsfan81
Well he indeed was a valuable player on many championship teams. I'm just stating it because that's very important to a lot of voters. That's the main reason he got elected. I put some importance on that too, but not as much as many of the voters do because I don't think he's a Hall of Fame worthy player either. However, you seem to put no importance in it at all.
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The voters evidently didn't see it that way. K.C. Jones was inducted 22 years after his playing career was over; if he was considered a viable hall of famer as a player he would have been inducted by the traditional voting committee. Instead, he was inducted by the veterans committee one year after he retired as coach of the 1980s Celtics teams.
It is very fair to say Jones did not get inducted solely for his contributions as a player, which seems to be your impression here. It was a combination of being a known player for a multiple championship team, the coach for the Celtics teams that won the 1984 and 1986 and the Washington Bullets team that advanced to the 1975 Finals and an overall good guy that the NBA likes to promote (similar to the considerations Joe Dumars received in his nomination) that got Jones inducted. IMO, there is no coincidence that his induction in 1989 came one year after stepping down as Celtics coach.
I discount Jones the player in the context of this and any discussion of all-time great players because while he was a contributor for those Celtics teams, it was in a minor capacity. Jones never showed any indication that he was more than a spot player and I don't feel he should be recognized for being a marginal player regardless for whom he played. Jones should be recognized rightfully as a part of the Celtics dynasty but he should have been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach or as contributor, not as a player.
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