This Shot Improved With Age

The last team to repeat as National Basketball Assn. champion, the 1968-69 Boston Celtics, won Game 4 at Boston Garden when Sam Jones hit a jumper from the top of the key to beat the Lakers, 89-88.

Jones, interviewed recently by the New York Times, said: “There were seven seconds left in the game, and we were losing by a point. If we lost this game, we’d go to Los Angeles down 3 games to 1.

“We called time out, and Bill Russell, then the Celtics’ player-coach, called a play for me. Later, he told me he almost didn’t call it because it was my last season and he said that people always remember the one you missed.

“But I made it, and I knew it was good from the time it left my hand. It rolled right over the cylinder. We won the game and went on to win the championship.”

Good story, but it hardly squares with what Jones had to say after the game. Asked about the shot, which hit the rim and rolled around twice before dropping in, he said: “Yes, I was very lucky. I slipped just as I started to shoot and then I tried to put some backspin on it and get it up in the air.

“I thought Russell was still in the game and I wanted to give him a chance to tap it in if I missed. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even think the ball would reach the front rim. And I didn’t know Russell was on the bench until I came out and saw him there.”

Add Jones: Former Celtic star Tom Heinsohn told Mal Florence of The Times after the game: “Say, didn’t you see that little gremlin sitting on the rim when Sam shot? I thought sure you’d see it.”

Trivia Time: Name the only member of the Detroit Pistons who has played on an NBA championship team. (Answer in column two.)

How is it that Dodger and Angel scouts let former Fremont High star Eric Davis get away to the Cincinnati Reds?

Former Angel scouting director Larry Himes, now general manager of the Chicago White Sox, told Tracy Ringolsby of the Dallas Morning News: “This will probably tarnish my image as a talent finder, but I wasn’t impressed. He was a stiff-handed shortstop who could run but was skinny as a rail, and you never had any idea he would have power.”

But what about the scouts who are claiming they could see greatness in Davis?

“They are lying if they say that,” Seattle scout Bob Harrison said. “Davis is a tribute to Cincinnati’s player development.”

Peter King of Newsday, on safety Adrian White of Florida, a self-proclaimed hitter who was drafted on the second round by the New York Giants: “In the first seven-on-seven scrimmage drill of the annual minicamp, White careened hard into wide receiver Stephen Baker after a catch. He slugged free agents Shelton Boyer and Jeffrey Smith, keeping them from receptions.”

White’s idol?

You guessed it, Jack Tatum.

Trivia Answer: Chuck Nevitt. He was a member of the 1984-85 Lakers.

Quotebook

Former Philadelphia 76er coach Gene Shue, now coach of the Clippers, recalling a closed-door meeting in which he “read out” the players for leaking stories to the press: “Fifteen minutes after I told them that, one of the sportswriters had the story.”