Basketball is a team sport, winning requires the joint efforts of everyone, including the coaching staff and the entire team, every player is an indispensable key factor in winning, substitute players are also a very important part of the team, bench depth will greatly affect the overall strength of the team. However, it is always easy to ignore the players on the bench, in fact, small roles also have a big role, bobby Jones used his career history to prove to people the huge role of substitute players.
The results of the 2019 Hall of Fame have been announced, and Philadelphia 76ers Bobby Jones was successfully inducted as a player, and as a player who has spent most of his career on the bench, it is not easy for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player.
When we mention the no. 24 superstar in NBA history, most people's first thought is definitely "Peter Pan" - Kobe Bryant, and perhaps some people think of Paul George in the Walker era, but few people think of Bobby Jones's name.
When it comes to the best sixth man, people may be greeted by the likes of Jamal Crawford or Louis Williams, but few people still think of Bobby Jones. And when it comes to pitch all-rounders, we can't help but think of James, Boris Dior, Kirilenko, and few people think of Bobby Jones. This article will take you to get to know Bobby Jones and feel the historical superstar of the 80s who has been forgotten by history.
Someone once said that the reason why Jones's popularity was so low was a matter of time, but it was not. To know the ancient super-giant names such as "Lord of the Rings" Bill Russell, "Sky Hook" Jabbar, "Iceman" George Gervin, people always blurt out. The honor that can only be said is the biggest reason why Jones has become a great player drowned behind the superstars of the times.
Interestingly, Jones is also the senior of Jordan, the god of basketball. Born in 1951, he also graduated from the University of North Carolina, a major basketball school in the United States. In the 1974 draft, the Houston Rockets selected the white man with the No. 5 pick, but then traded him to the Denver Nuggets. After playing two rookie seasons with the Nuggets, Jones moved again to the 76ers and spent the rest of his career at Philadelphia until he retired his No. 24 jersey.
Despite his age, few people have witnessed his performance on the pitch, and even the few videos of the game that have been preserved, we can still feel his strength in many ways. For example, his name is prominently listed in almost all major record lists, becoming the object of being overtaken by juniors: Ariza chased Bobby Jones in playoff steals, Anthony Davis chased Bobby Jones in the number of blocks, and so on.
Jones is known for his tireless pressing and tenacious willpower. He's 2.06 meters tall and weighs 95 kilograms, and although he's not physically strong among NBA players, he has surprisingly good defensive abilities. He has won 8 defensive firsts and 1 defensive second, accumulating 982 blocks and 1,050 steals in his career, ranking 97th in history and 149th in history, respectively. The ability to achieve such results in the 1980s was evident in its defensive prowess.
Unlike most defenders, Jones' excellent defense is mainly based on his excellent ball quotient, he does not rely entirely on tough physical confrontation to limit the opponent, but uses the top prejudgment to judge the opponent's time of departure, offensive choice, offensive route, etc., and then complete the steal and block. He has been named to the First Team of the Defensive Team of the Season for eight consecutive years, and this unique honor is enough to illustrate his strong deterrent power on the defensive end.
At the same time, he also has a very terrifying deterrent on the offensive end. His career average of 11.5 points per game doesn't seem very high, but we need to know that he has started 123 games in his entire career, and some players have not played more than two seasons, and it is admirable enough to get such statistics. His strength lies in his low shooting power, but his efficiency is extremely high, and his career shooting rate has reached 55%. Most of his scoring comes from defensive conversions, steals, blocks and quick attacks.
In the 1982-83 season, the 76ers spent a lot of money to bring in former Rockets Moses Malone, and his arrival undoubtedly squeezed Jones in the same position to the bench. But it also freed him up and allowed him to concentrate better on the defense. This season's 76ers worked perfectly, produced good chemistry, and achieved an impressive record of no. 1 in the league in the regular season. The playoffs are even more soaring, losing only one game to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals in the three-round series, and the Finals sweeping the opponent to win the championship, becoming the first team in NBA history to lose only one game in the playoffs.
The team's magnificent results are also inseparable from the hard work of everyone, especially Jones on the bench, who has completed the role of the leader of the second team very competently and made a contribution to winning the championship. Averaging 9.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, he won the sixth man of the season and is the first player in NBA history to win the award.
As a substitute, Jones showed his distinctive leadership, and even sports brand giant Nike saw Jones's extraordinary influence, hiring him as one of only six spokespeople in the league when it launched the first generation of Air Force1 sneakers. It is precisely because of his huge influence that in 2019, he was able to suppress superstars such as Ben and Weber to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
A closer look reveals that any super team needs a good bench leader to lead the bench to help the team. The 1996–97 Bulls bench was Kukoc, the Warriors' Dynasty bench with three crowns in recent years had Iguodala, and the Cavaliers who fought back against the championship included Richard Jefferson and DelaVertova.
As a star player of ancient times, our understanding of him is limited to information and game videos, and it is inevitable that we will be biased without personally experiencing the evaluation of him by his time. This is why some people question Jones's Hall of Fame qualifications, because they have not seen such doubts. And the old fans who really know it know what Jones contributed to the team in that era. He used to be the benchmark for every substitute player, guiding countless people to stick to their original love.