Globe article on Cousy’s reaction to Sam Jones’ death

With Sam Jones’s death, Bob Cousy loses another beloved Celtics teammate
By Dan Shaughnessy Globe Columnist,Updated December 31, 2021, 1:13 p.m.


Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, and Bob Cousy (left to right) appeared together at a TD Garden ceremony in 2012.

“I just got off the phone with Satch,” Cousy said from his Worcester home Friday morning. “I told him not to look over his shoulder.

“Now we’re down to just three. Satch [Tom Sanders], Russ [Bill Russell], and I are holding up the float, I guess. The last thing I said to Satch was that I’m going to have my lonely New Year’s Eve drink tonight at 6 o’clock and I’m going to hoist it to Sam. I told Satch he should do the same and he said, ‘I won’t have mine till 10,’ and I said, ‘By 10, I will have been asleep for an hour.’ ”

I reached the Cooz about an hour after he’d been contacted by Celtics official Jeff Twiss with the news that Jones had died Thursday night at the age of 88.


“My power’s been off all morning, so I haven’t had any lights or heat,” said Cousy. “But Jeff called and told me that Sam had passed. I called Satch and he was aware of it.

“I hadn’t spoken with Sam in a while, but he’d become close with a dear friend of mine down in Jacksonville. So the last few years I’ve been getting information from Sam. I knew he’d been having some difficulties.”

In the spring of 1957, on the recommendation of former Celtics player Bones McKinney (then coach at Wake Forest), Celtics coach Red Auerbach selected Jones out of tiny North Carolina Central after the Celtics had won their first championship with rookies Russell and Tommy Heinsohn.

Jones didn’t start right away — he had to wait behind Hall of Fame guards Cousy and Bill Sharman — but he played the next 11 seasons with Russell, winning 10 championship rings (second in NBA history) before retiring with Russell after the Celtics beat the Wilt Chamberlain Lakers in 1969.


“It was a shame he had to wait,” said Cousy. “I can’t imagine what it was like for Sam and K.C. [Jones] — both of whom became Hall of Famers — to sit the amount of time they sat waiting for Sharman and I to go away. But Sam got a lot of time. He was my primary target when he got in there. Sam would never [expletive] miss.”

There’s a famous photo of Sam Jones picking up a photographer’s stool to defend himself against Chamberlain at the Old Garden in 1962.

“Sam used to taunt Wilt something terrible,” said the Cooz. “Wilt half the time wouldn’t come down the floor if we were in transition. Sam would be waiting by himself and I would go to that option and Sam would be, like, 20 feet from the basket, waving to Chamberlain — ‘Come on out, big fella,’ and Wilt would take a few steps and Sam would drill that backboard shot, saying, ‘Too late.’ Sam never missed.”




Cousy is 93. The team photo from his final NBA season (1962-63) features 11 Hall of Famers, including Auerbach and Celtics owner Walter Brown. Almost all of those Hall of Fame players had long, full lives, but there have been a lot of these sad phone calls in recent years.

The Celtics family lost John Havlicek in April of 2019, Heinsohn in November of 2020, and K.C. Jones on Christmas Day last year.


Now there is news of the passing of Sam Jones. Delivered on New Year’s Eve.

“It’s just a continuation, unfortunately,” said Cousy. “At this point in my life, especially living alone, that’s what old folks do. We sit and we feel sorry for ourselves. My daughters call me almost every day, so I have contact, but it is a lonely time in your life.

“Every day you are reminded of your mortality. The Big Guy? Is there a Big Guy or not? These are the kinds of thoughts that, when you are in the action, or busy, you very seldom have except when you go to church. Other than that, you don’t dwell on it, but at my age, that’s all you [expletive] do.

“I like to sit and meditate and think. Normally, I blank out all the negative stuff and focus on the positive stuff, but there are times when you get into these kinds of funks, and today will be one. It’s the New Year and Sam has passed and now we’re down to three.”


▪ The Celtics plan to release the names on their 75th anniversary team on or around Jan. 23. Fifteen players will be named to the first, second, and third all-time units.

I loved Ray Allen, but Jo Jo White had a longer, sustained contribution than Ray did. The 2008 championship "big three" didn't accomplish as much as the Russell/ Cousy cohort, the Bird/McHale/Parrish big three or the Cowens/Havlicek/White big three coached by Heinsohn in the 70s.

Tatum has accomplished nothing yet. Even his TV commercials aren't at the level of past Celtics greats.🙂

I would have put White ahead of Tatum, but think the Globe may favor recency, unless O’Shaughnessy has more influence than I believe.

Paul Silas deserves consideration. Glenn "the big O" Ordway was on the selection committee and said the results will be weighted half from the committee and half from the fans so recency bias is a real factor in favor of Tatum. Glenn said he selected Sam Jones when commenting on his death but no other hints.

Frank Ramsey the NBA's original sixth man deserves consideration also.

Retired Jersey #s if this helps anyone's memory and choices. Plus there's the current guys, Garnett and Ray Allen.

Chief
DJ
Russell
Jo Jo
Cousy
Heinsohn
Sanders
Cowens
Luscotoff
Nelson (between Nelson and Howell, have to go w/Nelson; and Nelson cost the Celts the princely sum of $100.00)
Sharman
Maccauley
Ramsey
Sam Jones
KC Jones
Maxwell
McHale
Bird
Pierce
Lewis

Tim-- I'm skeptical about the preference for Nelson over Bailey Howell, an NBA HOF er as a player. Here's who Sports-Reference has as comparison players for them

Don Nelson
Hot Rod Williams
David Lee
Mark Aguirre
Shane Battier
Antawn Jamison
David West

Bailey Howell
Paul Pierce
Kevin McHale
Adrian dantley
Dominique Wilkins
Rick Barry
Chet Walker

Better NBA player for sure, thanks.   Celtics, kinda debatable, as Nelson was around longer.    But Bailey's stats vis-a-vis Nelson in the same seasons were better; even in his early 30s, which was pretty old at the time, so I can cheerfully concede you have a better argument. 

One thing that's impressive is how many times each of them played every game in a given season, according to Basketball Reference.

I have one odd memory of Satch Sanders, other than being a great defensive player on the great Celtics teams. If Bill Russell really needed a breather --and he played 45 minutes a game-- Satch would resort to "losing" a contact lens and the game would be stopped so the players could look for it. Inevitably, he'd "find" it, pop it back in, and the Celts would resume play with a more rested center.

Red didn't miss a trick. Red never traded Bird or McHale as they aged but still could have brought good value and Danny Ainge did trade Pierce and Garnett and received a King's ransom in draft choices in return - but Ainge never won anything with the haul he received so I think Red made the right decision. Russell, Cousy, Heinsohn, KC, Sam, Hondo, etc., also didn't get traded and I think that added to the Celtics culture over the years.

One time another team tried to trade an aging star (Dr, J?) but the trade fell through when the player did something like threaten to retire. Anyhow, Red called out the other team saying you don't trade aging stars.  If someone played most of their career for you and won some titles, you give them their day, retire their number, etc

And not a bad player name for a trivia question.

Who is HM ?