Dwight Jones, American basketball player, Died at 64

  Sports

Dwight Elmo Jones was born on February 27, 1952, and died on July 25, 2016.

He was an American professional basketball player.

Jones stood at 6’10” forward/center, he was the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1972 Olympic team that lost the controversial gold-medal game to the Soviet Union.

He was rejected from the Gold Medal game after an altercation with a Soviet player.

He attended E.O. Smith Education Center and Wheatley High School.

Following his completion of college basketball at the University of Houston from 1970–73, Jones was selected as the 9th overall pick in 1973 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks.

He played for ten seasons in the NBA from 1973 to 1983 with four teams: Atlanta, the Houston Rockets, the Chicago Bulls, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

He was a power forward 6 ft 10 and center averaged of 8.1 points in 766 career regular season games.

He had a son, Dwight Jones II, played at Houston Baptist University.

He was a 6-3 guard, Jones II was named the Red River Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2005-06 and 2006-07 while also being named an NAIA All-America both seasons.

He died at The Woodlands, in Texas.

Dwight Jones passed away at 64 years old.