YouTube Gold: JoJo White

A true Celtics legend sandwiched between Bill Russell and Larry Bird

Despite many impressive accomplishments, JoJo White is somewhat forgotten today.

Like Duke product Jayson Tatum, White went from St. Louis to the Boston Celtics, but in his case, he played collegiately for the Kansas Jayhawks, losing to Texas Western in the 1966 tournament in double overtime. White actually hit a shot that would have derailed the Miners but he was ruled out of bounds.

He was a member of the 1968 Olympic team, one that was boycotted by African-American players like Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and not expected to win gold. It did anyway.

As a Celtic, like John Havlicek, he was a key figure as Boston moved past the Bill Russell era, helping Boston to win titles in 1974 and 1976. After an injury, he was traded in 1979, just before Larry Bird joined the team and took it into an exciting new era.

Imagine: he missed the Russell era by one year as a rookie and was traded just before the Bird era started.

Like many players of his era, when you look at his highlights, he doesn’t seem as exciting or athletic as players today do. And there’s some truth to that - the NBA of his era was much less flashy. If you look closely though, you’ll see that not only was he a superb athlete, but he was highly skilled. And he was remarkably durable, once playing in 488 consecutive games.

White was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015. Sadly, he died in 2018, following brain cancer and subsequent dementia.