Thread by @michaelharriot

RIP KC Jones, the ONLY man to win Olympic gold, multiple NCAA titles; and multiple NBA titles as a player, asst. coach AND head coach.

Jones revolutionized sports, just not the one you’re thinking about.

He's the reason the NFL plays the way it plays

A thread:

Alongside his lifelong teammate Bill Russell, K.C. JONES went undefeated as a point guard of the 55-56 University of San Francisco Dons and won 2 NCAA titles and an Olympic Gold Medal.

He played on EIGHT NBA championship teams.

He was an assistant coach for 2 NBA champions.

As a head coach, he won 2 titles.

Every team he ever played on IN LIFE, went to the playoffs. He was 8-0 in the NBA finals

Every team he ever coached for went to the playoffs, except when he retired halfway through his final season as Seattle coach.

Jones wasn't a great scorer but he smart on and off the court. In fact, he was one of the few players who the NCAA allowed to play "Varsity" basketball as a freshman at USF

He was tough. His sophomore year, he played with a stomach ache.

He found out it was a ruptured appendix

Now you gotta remember when this was happening. This was in 1954—the year the Supreme Court issued a little decision called "Brown v Board of Education."

So everywhere the Dons went, the racists were sure to go.

Basketball players weren't even allowed to stay in some hotels. There was one tournament in Oklahoma City where all the teams got hotels while USF's Black players had to sleep in a closed-down dorm.

They won that tournament.

Then they made the NCAAs

Again, black players had been playing in the NCAA but no integrated team (on the collegiate level OR professional level) had ever played for a title with a majority of black starters.

Of course, the white folks tried some fuckshit.

First, Utah coach Jack Gardener tried to say that the Dons had an unfair advantage because they were playing their first-round game in town. Even though it was the first round, Gardener had a point...

Except Gardener didn't seem to care that the Regionals were at Oregon St.

Who was playing in the regional finals?

Oregon State.

When USF played Utah, they were whipping that ass 41-20 at halftime.

The Oregon State's doctor said Bill Russell couldn't play during the second half.

Why?

Because Russell had taken penicillin for a cold.

But they found another doctor who allowed Russell to play and they won.

Now they had to play the cheating MFs at Oregon State (I think that was their actual team name). Orgeon State had a 7'3" white boy they called "The Swede" who they thought would destroy Russell.

Plus, remember, Russell was only 6'10 and he was sick. Man, they beat up on Russell all night. Fouling him, trying to make him quit.

USF led 57-77 with :13 on the game. Russell was tired AF. Jones was looking at him coming from a time out like "you gon' make it, fam?"

that's when Russell bumped into a Cheating MF player and they called a foul on him...

DURING A TIME OUT.

WHich made it a "technical foul,"

which meant the Cheating MFs got a shot AND the ball.

The Cheating MF made the free throw and they inbounded the ball and missed.

The 7'3" Swede got the rebound. and held it over his head. Remember Russell was only 6'10" so he couldn't reach it.

Bruh...

KC Jones came from behind and stripped that "The Swede"

No foul, KC HAD THE BALL!

Of course, The refs called it a "simultaneous possession"

USF had a 1-point lead.
Seconds left on the clock.
K.C. Jones, a point guard, had to jump against the Swede, the unstoppable center

Y'all

Y'all...

Did I say "y'all?"

6'1" KC Jones outjumped a 7'3" All American Cheating Motherfucker, tapped it to his teammate & won the game.

When they made the NCAA final game, the Dons—which might be the coolest team of all time("Cheating MFs is still #1) were playing against this dude name Tom Gola.

If you've never heard of Gola, he was basically the White Lebron James..

Seriously, Gola was 6'7, could dribble, pass, score AND rebound. He's STILL the NCAA rebounding leader and scored 20 points per game.

One writer said: "No college basketball player can do more things--with or without the ball--than Tom Gola."

The game was essentially a Black team vs a White team (Lasalle had one Black player, Alonzo Lewis, only their second black player EVER).

Of course, Russell was the man.

But the SF knew that if Russell guarded Gola, he wouldn't be under the basket to block shots and rebound.

So just before the game, coach tells Jones: "you're going to guard Gola"

HOW? Jones was only 6'1

Bruh, at halftime, Gola had 9 points.

He scored 7 in the second half.

Jones literally DID NOT FOUL HIM

Not only did Jones shut Gola down but KC also grabbed 12 rebounds

Did I mention Jones led all players in scoring with 24 points?

Russell scored 23 and grabbed 25 rebounds He really was the man. He was the best player on the best team in basketball.

He said: "Jones played the greatest basketball game seen by anyone at any time."

After the season, they announced the UPI player of the year.

It was Tom Gola

KC and Russell were like: "Aight then"

The next season, the USF Dons became the first NCAA Division I men's team to finish the year undefeated with a championship.

After that second championship, Russell worked at the Post Office before joining the Army and serving two years.

When he came back, he wanted to continue his pro sports career. He had been drafted by the Celtics but people said he wasn't a good enough shooter.

But KC had another option.

In 1958, Jones discovered that he had been drafted by another team and decided to give it a shot.

The Los Angeles Rams.

Now, you'd have to be crazy to draft a player who never played college football into the NFL, right?

Well Jones was an all-star in high school and had played in the Army, which was a thing back then. And who was this crazy dude who drafted him, anyway?

Some guy named Pete Rozelle.

So Jones goes to training camp and they want him to play cornerback but his teammates hated him

Why?

Because he didn't know what he was doing. He learned how to play pro football from reading the rulebooks (There were very few NFL games on Youtube in 1950s).

In practice and in the preseason games, he would play football like he played basketball!

He looked at receivers as if they were the Cheating MFs and White Lebon. So KC would "box them out" at the line of scrimmage as if they were trying to get a rebound. It really messed the receivers up.

The first time he tried it, they actually had to stop play.

The WR was like: He can't do that."

KC was like: "Yes I can"

Receivers weren't used to being touched and the coaches actually had to look in the rulebook and discovered that the rules only said you couldn't interfere while the ball was in the air!

He actually had an interception in a preseason game but he eventually hurt his leg and decided to give up football.

He went to the Celtics.

But that NFL coach Jack Faulkner went on to coach in the American Football league) to coach the LA Chargers. T

Faulkner's defenses were so dominant they went to two AFL championships. In 1961, he was named the Coach of the Year.

But by then, every cornerback was playing his defensive technique

SURE, you could call him successful for winning 14 championship rings and an Olympic gold medal...

But perhaps the biggest mark he left on sports was:

KC Jones invented the "bump & run" defense

Read it for yourself:
profootballhof.com/blogs/stories-…