Tragedy struck the Boston Celtics community this week when Basketball Hall of Famer Jo Jo White passed away on Tuesday this week. He was 71 years old at the time of his death.
White was selected ninth overall in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Celtics and spent about a decade with the team. He had some tremendous accomplishments over the course of his NBA career, helping the Celtics to NBA Championship wins in both 1974 and 1976.
To add to that, he was even an All-Star in seven straight seasons and was an ironman for five straight seasons. From the start of the 1972-1973 season to the end of the 1976-1977 season, he did not miss a single game, according to Bleacher Report.
White was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame back in 2015.
During his NBA career he put up 17.2 points per game with 4.9 assists. It was a great career for sure.
I met Jo Jo White before. This was back in 2009 at Town Food Mart in Avon. He was promoting the Massachusetts Lottery in conjunction with the Boston Celtics and since the signing was not well-advertised or in a populous town, my family ended up having an excellent conversation with him. He could not have been a nicer guy to talk to about basketball and sports in general.
We talked about the Celtics. We talked about the 3-point line. We talked about multi-sport athletes (the Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Reds both had interest in him) and how Bo Jackson probably just should've played baseball since playing football is painful. So yeah, I have a Mass Lottery hat signed and shirt by JoJo White and a great memory of an encounter with him.
Definitely sad for the Boston sports community to see him go, RIP, Jo Jo.