Bobby Jones

His father had played on the Oklahoma Sooners national championship runner-up team of 1949, and older brother Kirby was an All-State cager and later a Sooner as well.

Since Kirby versus Mr. Jones did not make for many close matches, Bobby was invariably enlisted to join them in their games behind the house.

"I didn’t enjoy sports," Jones remembered.

"I would rather watch television, but my father wanted me to play."

As a sophomore at South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, the 6-foot-6 Jones made the basketball team.

His brother Kirby was also on the squad.

Bobby actually liked track and field better, because he could practice by himself and on his own terms.

Twice he won the state high jump title, finishing second in his junior year to Bob McAdoo.

As a senior, Jones broke the state record by clearing the bar at a height of 6 feet, 8 inches.

Robert Clyde Jones (born December 18, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Denver Nuggets in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the Philadelphia 76ers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

When a computer-generated ranking sponsored by Seagram Distillers rated Jones the NBA's "most consistent and productive player" in 1976–77, Jones turned over the $10,000 prize to religious charities.

At the award dinner (held without alcohol at Jones's request) he pronounced from the podium: "I’m definitely against whiskey, and I just felt God gave me this money not to keep, but to use."

And while he never asked teammates or coaches to avoid expletives, they frequently found themselves crying out "Oh, shoot!"

in his presence.

Nothing seemed to disturb Jones on the court; the final buzzer meant the end of just another day on the job.

Nicknamed "the Secretary of Defense", Jones won an NBA championship with the 76ers in 1983, was a four-time NBA All-Star, an eight-time member of the NBA All-Defensive Team, and was the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1983.

Bobby Jones was one of the most admired defenders ever to wear an NBA uniform.

While most other players depended on the occasional thrown elbow, hip-check, or grab of the uniform to gain an advantage, Jones relied on hustle and determination.

It was Jones’ stellar defense along with his other specialties such as leadership, that made him a standout sixth man.

Opposing teams could ill afford to relax on defense when Jones came off the bench, and they also had to work a lot harder on offense to get the ball in or even near the basket.

Jones's coaches would marvel that he was so good at things they had trouble getting many other players to do at all, such as blocking shots, moving without the ball, hustling back on defense, tipping passes, diving after loose balls, and giving up an open outside shot so a teammate could hit from inside—all things that rarely show up in a box score.

What that work added up to was a 12-year pro career that featured eight selections to the NBA All-Defensive First Team; the first-ever NBA Sixth Man Award; membership on the ABA All-Rookie Team; four appearances in the NBA All-Star Game and one in the ABA All-Star Game; and perhaps most prized, an NBA Championship with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983.

Above all, Jones's value as a player was evidenced by the fact that his teams never missed the playoffs.

"If I was going to ask a youngster to model after someone, I would pick Bobby Jones."

Said longtime 76ers teammate Julius Erving, "He's a player who's totally selfless, who runs like a deer, jumps like a gazelle, plays with his head and heart each night, and then walks away from the court as if nothing happened."

As for his almost polite approach to the game, Jones believed that anything less would have been downright unacceptable.

"If I have to play defense by holding on, that's when I quit," Jones said early in his career.

"If I have to use an elbow to get position, then I’m going to have to settle for another position. And if I foul, or if the official makes a mistake, there's no use screaming about it. It won’t change things or make me happier."

On one of the few occasions Jones did address a referee, it was to point out that the official had called a foul on the wrong player: it was Jones, not a teammate, who was the guilty party.

The trusting ref changed his call and assigned the foul to Jones—his fifth of the game.

Larry Brown, Jones's coach with the Denver Nuggets, remarked, "Watching Bobby Jones on the basketball court is like watching an honest man in a liars’ poker game."

As for vices such as drinking, smoking, and cursing, they were out of the question.

His perseverance earned him Philadelphia's Most Courageous Athlete Award in 1983.

Strangely, Jones was never in love with the sport of basketball.

As a kid growing up in North Carolina, he essentially had to play.

"He has a rare ability to divorce himself from the games after they end," Dean Smith, Jones's coach at North Carolina, told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1984.

"He is a man at peace with himself. It's what I term internal affirmation—and in Bobby, it's strong."

Jones suffers from asthma, as well as occasional epileptic seizures, and a chronic heart disorder, each of which require medication.

Stricken by a seizure in his kitchen one day, Jones fell onto a butcher block and gashed open his head.

The incident nearly led him to quit basketball for the clergy.