This next player during the series is the No. 1 former Jayhawk guard to have the best NBA career, and one of only two backcourt players in the top-10. Jo Jo White was one of the all-time NBA greats who is now enshrined in Springfield, Mass., in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after giving his heart and soul to the game for so many years.
No. 3 Jo Jo White
The No. 9 overall pick in the first round by the Boston Celtics in the 1969 NBA Draft just after legendary Boston center Bill Russell retired, Jo Jo White helped usher in a new era in Beantown while playing 12 seasons in the league and making his name as one of the all-time Celtics and NBA greats. White’s No. 10 jersey was retired and hung from the rafters on April 9, 1982 in Boston Garden, while he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in September 2015, a long overdue wait for the former Jayhawk star.
"I am so honored to be here,” ESPN.com reported White saying at his media conference on Sept. 10, the day before his induction. “I only wish my mother and father were here.
"I absolutely adored playing this game," White added. "I'm so proud to be right here."
The jubilant White, who had brain surgery seven years ago and had to relearn how to talk and walk, had no complaints that this magical and priceless moment took so long.
"I didn't play the game for (individual honors)," White said. "I don't make those decisions. To see them finally get to you, it's like, 'Oh, you're in now.' I don't make those decisions.”
The 6-3 guard, who played his first nine-plus seasons in Boston before finishing up with Golden State and Kansas City in 1981, ranks No. 9 all time in Celtics history in minutes and field goals, No. 8 in field goals attempts and points per game (18.4), No. 7 in assists, No. 10 in points and steals per game, and No. 6 in minutes per game (37.3).
White had a complete offensive and defensive game, and was one of the NBA’s first “iron men,” competing in all 82 games from 1972-77 and also playing over 3,200 minutes each season from 1971-77, where the St. Louis, Mo., native was an All-Star for seven-straight years while finishing in the top-10 in the league in total assists from 1972-77. He also ranked No. 9 in field goals in 1971-72 and No. 8 in 1975-76 and No. 7 in free throw percentage in 1976-77 and No. 6 in 1978-79.
White, who was named first-team All-Rookie and second-team All-NBA in 1974-75 and 1976-77, averaged a career-high 23.1 points per game in 1971-72 (third year in league) and a career-best 6.1 assists per game in 1972-73.
He helped lead the Celtics to the NBA championship in 1974 and 1976 and was MVP of the ‘76 Finals, the crowning moment of his career. White came up with a memorable and thrilling performance against the Phoenix Suns in Game Five, scoring a game-high 33 points, dishing a game-best nine assists in 60 minutes as Boston won, 128-126, in triple overtime.
Many basketball observers claim that to be the greatest game ever played.
“This I would say is frozen in time,” White said on NBA.com during a chat session in 2006. “I happened to be on the floor for 60 minutes of the game. I vividly remember just about every play made during that game.
“I personally would have to say it was one of the greatest games, and I was very happy to be a part of it. It had so many heroes in it. Certainly it was the longest game I'd ever been in, with so many players making so many big shots. It was draining. It was strenuous. You had to reach down for everything you had to pull out a victory. It had all the dramatics that anyone could ask for.”
White said he became extremely tired during the game, but was driven to complete the contest and win.
“Fatigue became a factor. I was tired, but I was conditioned to go the distance, so my thinking was that if I was tired, the other players were close to death. So that gave me motivation to push on, and any athlete worth his salt would want to be on the floor for that game, and I was up to the task.”
White, who competed in 837 games, finished his illustrious career with 14,399 points (17.2 ppg), 4,095 assists (4.9 apg), 3,345 rebounds (4.0 rpg) and 686 steals (1.3) in 35.8 minutes per game (No. 45 all time). White also shot 44.4 percent from the field and 83.4 percent at the free throw line (No. 96 all time).
White, who always came up big in the postseason, played in six playoff series (80 games) and averaged 21.5 points, 5.7 assists, 4.4 rebounds in 42.9 minutes per game.
He also ranks No. 84 all time in 2-point field goals and No. 42 in defensive rating (100.8).
Bill Simmons lists White the No. 95 best player in NBA history in his 2009 “The Book of Basketball.” Simmons cites White’s clutch play in Game Five of the ‘76 Finals, when he hit a big technical at the end of the second overtime, and then the clinching free throws in the third OT, “even though he was so exhausted by that point, he was sitting down on the court when Phoenix shot free throws.
“If your life depended on it, you wanted Jo Jo out there. Period.”
White was a tremendous all-around athlete and was actually also drafted by baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. But he chose to pursue his first love with hoops. White’s former head coach at Boston, Tommy Heinsohn, who was also inducted into the Hall of Fame in September 2015 as a coach, said he was a supreme Celtic.
"I've been a big champion of (White). He should have been in a long time ago," Heinsohn told ESPN.com. "He was a significant player on a very successful (two-time championship team).
"I can still remember him, after the triple-overtime game where he played (60) minutes (of a possible 63), unable to get off the (locker room) floor after the game was over. He truly loved the game. And a lot of people took him for granted. He's one of those guys on the Celtics that was a terrific, terrific player."
Heinsohn was one of just many admirers of White’s during his career. The 1978 Complete Pro Basketball Handbook wrote that former Celtic great Bob Cousy “says (White’s) play selection is almost flawless.”
Before he achieved greatness in the NBA, White was a star at Kansas. A two-time All-American in 1968 and 1969, White was also a three-time All-Big Eight selection and a member of the 1968 gold-medal USA Olympic Team, where he became a national hero.
His jersey was retired in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 27, 2003.
He scored a career-high 30 points against Colorado on Feb. 1, 1969 in his KU finale, the 999th win for the Jayhawk program, while finishing his career as the fourth-leading scorer in school history (1,286 points) and the highest among any KU guard.
“He had a truly great game considering the pressure, the occasion, his folks being here and the crowd wanting him to succeed,” KU coach Ted Owens told the Lawrence Journal-World afterwards. “I’ve never been happier for a player, and no player ever deserved such an ovation any more. I pulled him with 12 seconds left to sure he’d get the response he deserved.”
It was a fitting end to a stellar career.
“Jo Jo White (was) probably the best guard that ever played in the Big Eight,” former and late KU assistant Sam Miranda told me in a November 2000 interview.
White, who was a mid-year high school graduate, came to Kansas without Owens and ace recruiter Miranda actually ever seeing him play.
“He worked out for just one or two days before the big freshmen rivalry game against Kansas State,” Owens wrote in his 2013 book, “At the Hang-Up.”
“It wasn’t very far into the game before we knew we had a tremendous player on our hands. Jo Jo was 6’3” and 190 pounds, and if a coach were going to order a point guard off the Internet (it would’ve been a mail order catalogue back then), the point guard would have looked like Jo Jo. He was such a complete player with great court vision, a calm and confident court presence and the ability to put pressure on the opposition point guard — oh, yeah, and he could shoot it, too.”
White shot, dribbled, passed and defended all the way to the Hall of Fame. His induction speech was prerecorded due to his health problems and shown on the video board. It was an emotional speech which received a huge ovation.
“In May 2010, I was diagnosed with a tumor on my brain,” White said. “The doctor said I wasn’t supposed to be here, but God had other other plan(s), and for this, I am truly, truly grateful. I always tried to be the best. I tried out for the high school JV team. I got cut, so what did I do? I went out for the varsity team and made it. ... I had two great mentors at the University of Kansas, my head coach Ted Owens (he was in attendance at White’s HOF induction) and the team’s assistant coach Sam Miranda. To Sam and Ted, I love you.
“Being drafted by the Boston Celtics was one of the best things to ever happen to me...”
And “one of the best things to ever happen” to the Celtics in Beantown, where his jersey lives in the rafters at TD Garden.
For all time.
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