Legendary defender Bobby Jones is among this year's Basketball Hall of Fame class. The announcement was made today in Minneapolis before the Final Four.
Jones was an All-Star five times in his 12-year pro career and won an NBA title in 1983 as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers team that included Moses Malone and Julius Erving.
Jones said the most memorable part of that season was "the camaraderie, the chemistry that we had as a team of guys putting aside any individual goals to pull together."
He grew up in Charlotte and only began playing basketball at his dad’s urging. At the announcement, Jones recounted how in high school he would go see the pros play in exhibition games in Charlotte and say to himself, "there’s no way I could ever even get close to that." He then noted, “But I had great coaches and they encouraged me and inspired me and pushed me and here I am.”
Jones played for Dean Smith at UNC and also played for Team USA in the 1972 Olympics, which put him in the middle of one of the most controversial games in sports history.
After retiring from the NBA, Jones moved back to Charlotte and coached high-school basketball.
Jones spoke with Tommy Tomlinson last year for WFAE’s Southbound podcast. You can listen to that interview here.