Snapper Jones, N.B.A. Broadcaster, Dies at 75
Steve Jones — better known as Snapper Jones — a former professional basketball player who had a long career as an N.B.A. broadcaster, died on Saturday in Houston. He was 75.
The National Basketball Association, quoting family members and friends, said he died after a long illness, which it did not specify.
Jones was a longtime broadcast analyst for the Portland Trail Blazers, the last team he played for. He reached a national audience working for ESPN, TBS, TNT, Fox Sports Net, the USA Network and NBC, where he was an N.B.A. analyst for more than a decade. He retired in 2006.
In a Twitter message, Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, called Jones “one of the N.B.A.’s all-time great TV analysts.”
Jones was a three-time All-Star in eight seasons with the American Basketball Association, averaging 16 points in 640 regular-season games for Oakland, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, Carolina, Denver and St. Louis.
He finished his career with Portland, of the N.B.A., in 1975-76, averaging 6.5 points in 64 games in his lone N.B.A. season.
Jones spent 26 years in the Blazers broadcasting booth and provided color commentary for CBS when the team defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to win the 1977 N.B.A. championship. He was a broadcast partner of Bill Walton, the former Trail Blazer and Hall of Famer.
.@BillWalton delivers a beautiful tribute to his great friend and former broadcast partner, Steve "Snapper" Jones.
Jones avoided explaining how he got the nickname Snapper, revealing only that two teammates in New Orleans gave it to him, according to “The Book of Basketball: The N.B.A. According to the Sports Guy,” by Bill Simmons.
Stephen Howard Jones was born on Oct. 17, 1942, in Alexandria, La., and raised in Portland. He was a standout at Franklin High School and led his squad to an Oregon state championship in 1959. He went on to star at the University of Oregon.
He moved to Houston in 2008, according to the N.B.A. He was the brother of Nick Jones, who also played in the A.B.A. and the N.B.A. in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and who survives him. There was no information available on other survivors.
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