Walter Jones is a retired American professional basketball player. He was a 6'2" 180 lb guard. Born in Philadelphia, Jones played at Overbrook High School, the same school that had produced Wilt Chamberlain a few years earlier. He played college ball for coach Jack Kraft at Villanova University where he would earn Philadelphia's BIG-5 Player of the Year honors 2x in a row for 1963 and 1964 and become a 3rd-Team All-American as a senior. In his first NBA season, Jones played for the Baltimore Bullets and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. The next season, he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers where he would play for the next six years. Jones and Hal Greer were the starting guards on the 1966–67 76ers team that also featured Chamberlain, Chet Walker, Lucious Jackson, Billy Cunningham and included fellow Villanova alum - Bill Melchionni. That team went 68-13 during the regular season, then easily won three playoff series in dethroning the eight-time defending NBA championBoston Celtics. Jones made the 76ers' starting lineup after Larry Costello tore his Achilles tendon on January 6, 1967. The NBA Champion 1967 Philadelphia 76ers squad is considered one of the greatest teams ever assembled in NBA history. In the 1968 season, Wali, Wilt and the rest of the Sixers would face the Celtics again in the Eastern Divisional conference series after beating the Knickerbockers. Sixth Man and Hall of Fame coach and player Billy Cunningham would not be available for the Boston rematch series after breaking his wrist. However, the Sixers were still favored to beat the Celtics and repeat as champions. On April 4th, 1968 tragedy struck the world with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Game 1 of the playoff rematch was scheduled for the next day. Many of the players on both teams were taken back by the news and some including Wali were vocal about not playing. A vote was held by the Sixers team and Wali and Wilt Chamberlain were outvoted. Fifty plus years later in 2019, a college professor named Craig Skilling interviewed several of the living players from that 1968 game including Celtics Legends, Tom "Satch " Sanders, Bailey Howell along with Billy Cunningham and Matt Guokas of the Sixers. Each player said they regret playing in that April 5th, 1968 game the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. However, it was noted that the players were only hours from tip off in Philadelphia at the old Spectrum and it was difficult to cancel the game with everyone already piling in according to Billy Cunningham. Later, Jones played for the Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Stars but retired after a final stint with the Sixers in 1976. Jones' son Askia is the third-leading scorer in Kansas State Universitybasketball history and played briefly in the NBA himself, with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
