K.C. Jones, a member of the basketball Hall of Fame, has died at 88, the Boston Celtics announced on Friday. Jones was a prolific player, one of only eight basketball stars to have won college and NBA titles as well as Olympic gold medals. Jones won eight NBA championships as a Celtics player in the 1960s, as well as two more when he coached the Celtics in the 1980s. “K.C. was the nicest man I ever met, he always went out of his way to make people feel good, it was such an honor to play for him,” Larry Bird, whom Jones coached in the ’80s, said in a statement. “His accomplishments are too many to list, but, to me, his greatest accomplishment was being such an outstanding person to all who had the privilege of knowing him, I will miss him dearly.” A cause of death wasn’t revealed. Jones died at a Connecticut assisted living center and had battled Alzheimer’s for years.
