William Lawrence Jones (born September 26, 1958) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. He played the majority of his professional career in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

's National Basketball League (NBL) from 1985 until 1992.

Early life

Bill Jones, a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, was born and raised in

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County, Illinois, Will County. It had a population of ...

and attended Joliet Central High School where he was named to the All-Conference team and received an All-State honorable mention. After graduating in 1976, Jones attended the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. UNI offers more than 90 majors across five colleges. The fall 2024 total enrollment was 9,283 students. The university was initially founded in 1 ...

from 1977 to 1981. Jones entered into the

1981 NBA Draft The 1981 NBA draft was the 35th annual NBA draft, draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 9, 1981, before the 1981–82 NBA season, 1981–82 season. The draft was broadcast in the United States on the NBA ...

, but went undrafted.

Professional career

In 1985, Jones was signed by the

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in the state's capital of Adela ...

in Australia's National Basketball League where he played as an import player (from 1979 to 2015, NBL teams, with the exception of the

New Zealand Breakers The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Bank of New Zealand, BNZ Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers are the only non-Australian side currently competing in Austral ...

, were restricted to no more than 2 non-Australian players at a time). Quickly becoming the starting centre for the team (and easily its tallest player), Jones formed part of the league's best front court with former St. Augustine's Falcons

Power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

, Mark Davis. Along with other stars including guards

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...

(a naturalised Australian born in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

) and

Darryl Pearce Darryl Pearce (15 October 1960 – 12 January 2025) was an Australian professional basketball player. Nicknamed "The Iceman", Pearce played in the National Basketball League (NBL) for the Adelaide 36ers from 1982 to 1991 before playing four s ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

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representative Peter Ali (the team captain), and the NBL's 1985 Rookie of the Year Mike McKay, the Ken Cole coached team made it through to the single game NBL Grand Final that year, but went down 121–95 to the

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to the league in 2016. Brisbane were one of ten NBL ...

. During the year Jones averaged 13.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 28 games. For 1986, Ken Cole made Jones the captain of the 36ers. In 1985 Jones had fouled out in a number of games and Cole's motivation behind making him the captain was that hopefully he would cut the cheap fouls out of his game. The ploy worked and Jones went on to have his best season in Australia, averaging 19.1 points, 13.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game over 30 games, shooting an NBL career high 31 points in the final regular season game against the

Melbourne Tigers Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Joh ...

. The 36ers themselves enjoyed a golden year with the team going through the season with a 24–2 record, including going 13–0 on their home court, the 3,000 seat Apollo Stadium, earning them the nickname "The Invincibles". The two losses for the 36ers literally came from last second shots meaning that they were only seconds away from a perfect season, while against Geelong late in the season Jones saved Adelaide from a home loss when in the last second of the game he tip-dunked a missed 3 point attempt from Darryl Pearce to give Adelaide a 120–119 win. Going into the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, the 36ers were overwhelming favourites to win their maiden championship having finished 5 games clear of the second placed Canberra Cannons. The team easily overcame the Illawarra Hawks 116–92 in their single game home Semi-final before again facing the Brisbane Bullets (who had come from behind to beat Canberra in their semi-final clash) in the now best of 3 game Grand Final series. In the opening game at the

Brisbane Entertainment Centre The Brisbane Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the City of Brisbane, central part of Brisbane, Australia. The centre is managed by SMG (property management), ASM Global. The centre also houses a sporting complex a ...

in front of a then record indoor sports attendance in Australia of 11,000 fans, Jones led from the front for the 36ers with 30 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks as the 36ers won 122–119 in overtime (eventual series MVP Mark Davis had 38 pts, 23 boards and 5 assists). In a pivotal moment late in regulation time, Jones had pulled off the play of the game for his team when he stepped in front of Bullet's kingpin

Leroy Loggins Leroy Jay Loggins (born 20 December 1957) is an Australian-American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball League (NBL) from 1981 until 2001. College career Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Loggins atten ...

(the

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

league MVP) and took a charge for what was Loggins' 5th foul (in the NBL at the time players were only allowed 5 fouls). A week later back in Adelaide where the 36ers had been the first team to go through a regular season undefeated at home, the 36ers were expected to wrap up the series, but were stunned by the Bullets who refused to go quietly and pulled off a 104–89 win. Jones and the 36ers would not be denied though, winning Game 3 and the series 113–91 at home. Over the series, Jones averaged 19.6 points, 15.6 rebounds and 3 blocks per game. During his time with the 36ers (which at the time was a semi-professional league with most players still having day jobs), Jones and Mark Davis worked as security at the

Adelaide Casino Adelaide Casino, known commercially as SkyCity Adelaide, is a large casino and recreational venue on the north edge of the Adelaide city centre. Located in the heritage-listed Adelaide railway station building on North Terrace, Adelaide, the cas ...

, with Davis later joking that because of their height, their uniforms were too short making them look like Urkel, but that they had very little trouble from casino patrons as they "towered over everybody back then". While in Adelaide, Jones also formed a close bond with the 'Brothers' (as they called themselves) in the 36ers squad. The Brothers being African-American players Jones, Davis and naturalised Australian's Al Green and Dwayne Nelson. With Ken Cole having been controversially sacked at the end of 1986, Adelaide had a new coach in Gary Fox. Although the team (which was largely intact from 1986) still finished 2nd on the ladder and were still the title favourites in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

. However, they were upset 2–1 in their semi-final series against the Perth Wildcats and failed to make their 3rd straight

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

. 1988 would be more of the same for the 36ers, but Jones wouldn't be the team captain as Fox had taken that from him and given it to Darryl Pearce and Peter Ali. They again finished on top of the ladder at the end of the regular season but again faltered in the semi-finals, this time being swept by the eventual champion Canberra Cannons. 1988 had seen the emergence of centre Mark Bradtke with the 36ers and at the end of the season coach Fox told the then 30 year old Jones that he would not be required in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

. Jones then linked with former coach Ken Cole at the

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

for the year, playing 24 games for the club. When Cole left the Falcons at the end of 1989, Jones left as well and played for two years in Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

before returning to Australia in 1992 where he played 2 games for the

Geelong Supercats Geelong United is a NBL1 South club based in Geelong, Geelong, Victoria. Previously known as the Geelong Supercats, the club fields teams in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is affiliated with Geelong United Basketball and plays ...

in the NBL as well as playing for the Bayside Blues in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

as well as the Gippsland Lakers before retiring from playing in 1994. Bill Jones played 139 NBL games from 1985 to 1992, averaging 16.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots per game. Although at only 6'9" he wasn't the tallest centre (many centre opponents in the NBL were around 1-3 inches taller), Jones' jumping ability and wingspan made him a noted shot blocker.

Current

Bill Jones currently lives in Melbourne, Australia where he is the Project Manager for

Australian Unity Australian Unity is an Australian Mutual organization, mutual company having its origins in the friendly society, friendly societies movement. In 2012, Big Sky was merged with Australian Unity to become the banking arm of the company. History ...

. Since his retirement from basketball, Jones has also taken up

Roller hockey Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. It can be played with traditional roller skates (quad skates) or with inline skates and use either a ball or puck. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 cou ...

and he counts the 1986 NBL Championship win with the Adelaide 36ers as his career highlight.Puckhandlers Roller Hockey - Bill Jones profile
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Honour roll

NBL career stats

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, 30 , , 30 , , ''NA'' , , .560 , , .000 , , .598 , , 13.4 , , 0.9 , , 1.2 , , 2.2 , , 19.1 , - , style="text-align:left",

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, 29 , , 29 , , 34.5 , , .469 , , .000 , , .674 , , 10.4 , , 1.6 , , 1.1 , , 2.2 , , 14.3 , - , style="text-align:left", 1988 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 26 , , 34.9 , , .548 , , .000 , , .609 , , 10.2 , , 1.3 , , 1.1 , , 1.6 , , 15.7 , - , style="text-align:left",

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, 24 , , 24 , , 39.3 , , .499 , , .000 , , .730 , , 13.3 , , 1.6 , , 1.6 , , 1.5 , , 18.3 , - , style="text-align:left",

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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, 2 , , 2 , , 29.7 , , .412 , , .000 , , 1.000 , , 8.5 , , 1.5 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 7.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2" , Career , 139 , , 139 , , ''NA'' , , .524 , , .000 , , .649 , , 11.5 , , 1.3 , , 1.2 , , 2.0 , , 16.0

References

External links

Adelaide 36ers - The Golden Era (1980s)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Bill 1958 births Living people Adelaide 36ers players American expatriate basketball people in Australia Basketball players from Joliet, Illinois Basketball players from South Australia Centers (basketball) Geelong Supercats players Newcastle Falcons (basketball) players Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball players American men's basketball players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen