Jo Jo White, Deadeye Shooter for Boston Celtics, Dies at 71
Jo Jo White, the sharpshooting guard for the Boston Celtics whose smooth, nearly unstoppable jump shot helped carry the team to two National Basketball Association championships in the 1970s, died on Tuesday. He was 71.
His death was announced by the Celtics, who did not say where or how he died. White received a diagnosis of brain cancer in 2010. White’s daughter Meka White told ESPN that the cause was complications of dementia, noting that he had developed pneumonia.
During his 10 years in Boston, White, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, embodied the tradition, pride and excellence associated with the Celtics. On the court, White could do it all. With quick hands and quick feet, he jump-started fast breaks, finding teammates with clever passes or taking matters into his own hands with a deadeye jump shot.
“He was a champion and a gentleman; supremely talented and brilliant on the court, and endlessly gracious off of it,” the Celtics, for whom White worked as the director of special projects, said in a statement on Tuesday.
During his prime, in the mid-1970s, White never seemed to tire. He led the team in points and assists in back-to-back seasons, and he played in 488 consecutive games, a Celtics record.
In the 1973-74 season, White averaged 18.1 points a game as the Celtics, with a lineup that included John Havlicek, Paul Silas, Dave Cowens and Don Chaney, went on to the win the league championship, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in seven games, the final one in Milwaukee.
In Game 5 of the 1976 N.B.A. finals, White played 60 of the 63 minutes in a triple-overtime thriller often called the greatest game ever played. He led all players with 33 points and nine assists in a 128-126 victory over the Phoenix Suns, who were led by Paul Westphal. The Celtics went on to win the title in Phoenix in six games, the second under Coach Tom Heinsohn, and White was named the most valuable player.
Asked about how he managed to play almost the entire Game 5, White credited his conditioning. “I was tired, but I was conditioned to go the distance,” he said in an interview several years ago. “My thinking was that if I was tired, the other players were close to death.”
White was a seven-time all-star in his decade with the Celtics. After a season and a half with the Golden State Warriors, he ended his career in 1980-81 with the Kansas City Kings (now the Sacramento Kings).
From the time he first emerged as a standout player on the national stage, White had an uncanny ability to pull up at the top of the key and sink a clutch shot. A quick dribbler, he could cut through defenses before passing the ball to open teammates. But when a game was close with time expiring, White often had the ball.
In college at the University of Kansas, White hit a 32-foot last-second shot that would have knocked out Texas Western in the 1966 N.C.A.A. tournament if not for a ruling by referees that he had stepped out of bounds. Texas Western won the game and later defeated Kentucky, becoming the first team with five black starting players to win the national championship.
“White does everything better than any man of his size I have ever seen,” Phog Allen, the former men’s basketball coach at Kansas, told Sports Illustrated in 1967. “Watch him and you think he’s floating in oil.”
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Joseph Henry White was born on Nov. 16, 1946, in St. Louis, the youngest of seven children of George White, a Baptist minister, and the former Elizabeth Guynn. White earned his nickname, Jo Jo, in high school when one of his coaches, trying to get his attention, hollered his name twice.
White is survived by his wife, Deborah, whom he met in 1980 when she lived in his apartment building in Boston. Besides his daughter Meka, he had five other children as well as grandchildren. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
White, a top national recruit out of McKinley High School in St. Louis, chose to play college basketball at Kansas, about a four-hour drive west from his home. By his sophomore year, his multiple talents — passing, rebounding, ball-handling and shooting — had caught the attention of professional teams.
White won a gold medal with the United States men’s basketball team in the 1968 Summer Olympics and entered the 1969 N.B.A. draft as one of the top players. But teams had concerns because of his commitment to serve a brief stint in the Marine Reserves after college. The Celtics drafted him ninth over all, and he was able to join the team earlier than expected after the Marines granted him early release.
He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in Springfield, Mass., in 2015, alongside Heinsohn, who was being honored as a coach after having earlier entered the Hall as a player. White appeared at the ceremony while still dealing with his cancer.
“In May 2010, I was diagnosed with a tumor on my brain,” he said in a speech for the ceremony that had been videotaped earlier. “The doctor said I wasn’t supposed to be here,” he added, but “God had other plans, and for this I’m truly, truly grateful.”
Off the court, White, a sharp dresser, was held up as an example of Celtics class and elegance to his teammates by Red Auerbach, the renowned Celtics coach who was the team’s general manager when White played.
“Look around you when the Celtics travel, they dress well,” Auerbach said after the team won the 1976 finals, two years after the team won the first championship with White. “If you dress like a champion, you’ll play like one.”
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Joseph Henry White (November 16, 1946 – January 16, 2018) was an American professional basketball player. As an amateur, he played basketball at the University of Kansasand represented the U.S. men's basketball team during the 1968 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he is best known for his ten-year stint with the Boston Celtics of the NBA, where he led the team towards two NBA championships and set a franchise record of 488 consecutive games played.[1] White was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
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[hide]Early life and amateur career[edit]
White was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a Baptist minister, George L. White Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth Rebecca Guynn.[2][3][4] As the youngest of seven children,[2] he had three elder sisters; Shirley, Adlean, and Irene, and three elder brothers, George, Dewitt and Ronald.[5] He started playing basketball at six and found sports to be a key platform for his community.[6] As a child, he followed the St. Louis Hawks.[6]
College[edit]
Due to his age, White was eligible to play college basketball a semester early at the University of Kansas, and team captain Riney Lochmann led a vote to determine that White would be welcomed by the players.[7]
White joined the team mid-season and enjoyed immediate success, entering the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. They played dominantly but encountered a physical Texas Western squad, now known as University of Texas at El Paso, in the Midwest regional final. During the first overtime, White took and made a shot (a 35-foot runner[8]) as the buzzer sounded, but he was ruled out of bounds by referee Rudy Marich.[9] The team lost this thriller in the second overtime to Texas Western, who went on to win the championship.[10] This game was featured in the 2006 film Glory Road[11] about the 1966 Texas Western team.
White became a leader of the team, and made the consensus NCAA All-American Second Team in 1968 and 1969.[12] He made the All-Big Eight team the three subsequent years (1967–1969) Due to his early enrollment, White had only one semester of eligibility and Head Coach Ted Owens opted to have White play for the 18 games in the first semester rather than eight in the second.[13] He graduated with a degree in physical education.[13]
Olympics[edit]
After college, White played on the 1968 USA Olympic basketball team in Mexico City, Mexico.[14] The team was not expected to win the gold medal due to many future Basketball Hall of Fame players either declining to participate (e.g. Lew Alcindor, Elvin Hayes) or not being chosen (e.g. Pete Maravich, Calvin Murphy, Dan Issel).[15] The U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee limited four roster spots from the NCAA, two from the AAU, three from the Armed Forces, one from Junior College (Spencer Haywood), and two for NAIA.[16]The U.S. men's team, led by White and Haywood unexpectedly went undefeated (9–0), beating Yugoslavia 65–50 in the title game.[17] White described his reaction:
This victory was the last in a streak of seven consecutive gold medals for the United States men's team.[14]
Professional career[edit]
After the Olympics, White was drafted in 1969 in the first round (9th pick overall)[19] by the NBA's Boston Celtics, who at that time had just won their 11th championship in 13 years.[20] There was some reluctance during the time of the draft as White had a mandatory two-year military commitment.[21] Then Boston general manager, Red Auerbach, was able to shorten White's commitment and allow him to participate in the 1969–70 NBA season. He later stated that his short stint helped him prepare for his first Celtics training camp,
White was also drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.[13]
However, before White even reported to training camp, the Celtics' center and player-coach Bill Russell announced his retirement and cut ties to the organization.[23] The Celtic's long-time shooting guard Sam Jones also ended his career, requiring White to replace those duties. With the sudden departure of Russell and Jones, White endured a rebuilding season during which the franchise experienced their first losing season (34–48)[24] since 1950,[25] the year before Red Auerbach was hired[26]. White made the All-NBA rookie team during the 1970 season.
The Celtics got back on track by drafting Dave Cowens, trading for Paul Silas, retaining veteran John Havlicek, and hiring coach Tommy Heinsohn. With White leading the attack from the point guardposition, the team returned to its winning ways in 1971. He was an All-Star for seven straight years from 1971 through 1977, finishing in the top ten in the league in assists from 1973–1977. In 1972, he participated in the now-defunct NBA One-on-One 16-man tournament where he reached the championship (which occurred during halftime of Game 5 of the Finals) and faced 6'11" Detroit Piston Bob Lanier, who used his eight-inch height advantage to win the $15,000 prize.[27]
In 1974, White and the Celtics reached the 1974 NBA Finals. They faced the Milwaukee Bucks who were returning with their championship-winning core from the 1971 NBA Finals, including future Hall of Fame members Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. With the Bucks' starting point guard, Lucius Allen, injured at the onset of the playoffs, White led a small, quick line-up featuring undersized, All-Star Cowens at center, to the first Celtics championship in the Post-Russell era.[28] The following season, White led the Celtics in minutes in a season where they finished 1st in NBA Atlantic Division with a 60–22 record but lost the Eastern Conference Finals.[29]
In 1976, White was part of a dominant Celtics squad which featured 5 veterans averaging double-digit scoring.[30] During the playoffs, White led the Celtics to the NBA championship and was a starring player in what is often referred to as "the greatest game ever played"[31][32][33][34] in NBA history. In the triple overtime win against the Phoenix Suns in game 5 of those finals, White was the game's high scorer with 33 points, had a game high 9 assists, leading the Celtics to a 128–126 win. Logging 60 minutes of play time, only the Suns' Garfield Heard (61) played more minutes. White was named the most valuable player of the 1976 NBA Finals.[35]
White went on to become one of professional basketball's first "iron men", playing in all 82 games for five consecutive seasons during the 1970s and setting a franchise record of 488 consecutive games played. White suffered an injury during the 1977–78 season.[36] With the end of the streak, White and the aging Celtics became a less effective squad and followed their championship with an exit from playoff semifinals in 1977 and then two losing seasons.[citation needed]
Unable to retain his all-star form following the injury, White was traded by the Celtics to the Golden State Warriors in the middle of the 1978–79 NBA season. Boston Globe writer Bob Ryan described the tension leading to the White's trade from Boston [37]
White retired as a player after 1981 with the Kansas City Kings. He returned to the Jayhawks as an assistant coach from 1982–83. In 1987 at the age of 41, White attempted a professional comeback as a player-assistant coach with the Topeka Sizzlers of the Continental Basketball Association.[38]
Legacy[edit]
On Friday, April 9, 1982, his number 10 was hung from the rafters at the Boston Garden.[39] He was in the top 100 in the NBA for career total field goals made, field goals attempted, assists, free throw percentage, minutes per game, and defensive rating.[15] He made the All-NBA Second Team in the 1974–75 and 1976–77 NBA seasons.[40] White was director of special projects and community relations with the Celtics at the time of his death.[14]
In 1991 White was welcomed into the Missouri Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.[41] His jersey was retired by the Kansas Jayhawks in 2003.[42] He was inducted in the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame with the class of 2009.[43] He also joined the 2013 class of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.[44]
White was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class in September, 2015.[45] He was inducted alongside his former coach, Tom Heinsohn, and was formally introduced into the Hall by fellow Celtics John Havlicek and Dave Cowens.[46]
Previous to his induction in 2015, White's long exclusion from the Basketball Hall of Fame was a common topic when discussing players who have long been eligible but have not been inducted, with most writers believing his entry has been long delayed.[47][48][49][39][50][51] One writer in 2012 went as far as to declare a Jo Jo White Threshold as a marker for viability among future candidates.[52]
Personal life[edit]
Family[edit]
White was born with six older brothers and sisters. He has married twice, secondly to Deborah White and previously to Estelle Bowser.[53] The retired Major League Baseball player Chris Chambliss is a cousin of White's.[54] In 1985, White moved to Rochester, NY where he owned and operated a couple of McDonald's restaurants until the early 1990s. In 2009, White and his wife opened a restaurant, JoJo's West, in Maynard, Massachusetts, which declared bankruptcy and closed in 2010 with criminal allegations and litigation against restaurant partner Chris Barnes.[55][56]
In media[edit]
White appeared in two movies with small roles: 1980's Inside Moves and 2007's The Game Plan, in which his son, actor Brian J. White, also starred.[57] His controversial 1966 NCAA Tournament Elite 8 game against Texas Western is portrayed in the 2006 film Glory Road.[11]
In 2010, White underwent a procedure to remove a tumor on the back of his brain.[58] To assist his recovery, his attorney elicited memories from White and authored a subsequent biography Make it Count that was released in 2012.[59] Then–Boston Celtics Coach Doc Rivers remarked:
In September 2012, White started the Jo Jo White Foundation to provide support for brain cancer research.[60] He also previously led the Jo Jo White Growth League for children in middle school [61] starting in 1994.[62]
Death[edit]
White died in Boston on January 16, 2018, from complications of his dementia, specifically pneumonia, which was brought on when he had a benign brain tumor removed.[14]
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