for those who don't know Jonesy. Heres a reprint of an article from Fanfare magazine.
R.I.P Jonesy!
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http://www.nba.com/kings/news/Bill_Jones_The_Unflappable_Tr-138570-58.html
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From FanFare Magazine (Reprint)
Bill Jones: The Unflappable Trainer
By Jeffrey Weidel
Although the team was playing poorly and far too many fans were staying away from the arena in a sports town known for its loyal support, Bill Jones never wanted the Kansas City Kings to depart the Midwest.
Even less excited about coming to Sacramento was Joyce Jones, the wife of the Kings former long-time trainer. The couple owned a beautiful 120-acre farm in Missouri, a cherished property that would be their retirement home.
However, duty called and the Jones family reluctantly uprooted in late spring of 1985, heading to Sacramento, a place they knew virtually nothing about.
“When you marry an NBA player, you expect some day to be traded,” Joyce said. “But you don’t expect it when you are the wife of a trainer. You never think the team is going to move. That house was our dream and all of a sudden we had to leave. We also left behind our daughter and our first grandchild.”
Nearly 20 years later, Bill and Joyce Jones still make their home in the Sacramento area, which they have come to love. Eight years after Bill retired from 23 years as the franchise’s trainer, the couple lives comfortably in Roseville, still very connected with sports.
The man people around the NBA know affectionately as “Jonesy” has rarely been back to ARCO Arena, just three times in fact since retiring after the 1995-96 season. Although he remains a loyal fan and watches most games on TV, following the progress of his grandchildren in youth sports scratches the itch of going to ARCO Arena just fine.
“That’s our main deal now, going to our grandchildren’s soccer, baseball and softball games,” Joyce said. “We really enjoy that.”
The oldest of four children, daughter Angie lives in Roseville, while youngest daughter Jennie resides in Loomis. Middle daughter Connie never left the Midwest, while the baby of the family—Justin, 22, a former Kings ball boy—is studying the hotel business at UNLV.
Life seemed very well established for Jones back in Kansas City. He had been a trainer for the Kansas City Royals for three years and made the switch to the NBA when Kings trainer Joe Keefe died in 1973.
Jones had done some fill-in work the previous year for Keefe and though he didn’t know much about the NBA game, he liked the idea of making the switch. However, he never envisioned the franchise leaving.
“We had built our retirement home and that’s where we planned on living,” Jones said. “But when the team decided to move to Sacramento I was too young to retire, so we picked up everything and came out.”
Coming from a major league city like Kansas City, which had the NFL Chiefs, the baseball Royals and the Kings, Sacramento had little to offer in the way of big-time sports.
“I knew the biggest game in town back then was the Pig Bowl; there was just nothing professional going on in Sacramento at the time,” he said.
But gradually Jones grew enamored with the city and its crazed fans. They showed up for Sacramento’s NBA debut Oct. 25, 1985 in formal wear. And even though the Kings lost a close game to the Clippers that night, they went home happy.
It was a strange phenomenon for Jones and the team.
“We all remarked about how surprised we were that a town of this size didn’t know more about basketball,” Jones said. “We would be down by 20 or 30 points and they would be doing the wave.”
By all accounts, that first batch of Kings were treated like royalty, even though the team went just 37-45 that season, barely making the playoffs. But the bond was strong with everyone in the organization.
And one of the most popular men around ARCO Arena was “Jonesy,” who performed myriad of duties and seemingly pulled them off with ease. Kings guard Reggie Theus tells an interesting story that reveals another duty that was certainly not a specified one for a trainer.
An avid hunter, Theus recalls an occasional pheasant hunt in then rural North Natomas on the way to practice. If successful, he would carefully put the wild game in his red Porsche and proceed to practice. The bird would be suitable for the oven by the time he headed home later that day.
“I would bring it to practice and have Jonesy clean it and it would be ready for me after practice that same day,” Theus said.
Of course, a lot of things have changed, including the duties of a trainer. When Jones called ARCO Arena home he was in charge of booking flights (there were no charters), finding hotels, arranging for buses, handling luggage, securing practice facilities, taking care of equipment and several other small jobs that “no one else wanted to do.”
Oh yeah, he also served as trainer, which can be time consuming all by itself amidst a group of athletes playing an 82-game schedule.
“Jonesy was the best, he was remarkable,” said Jerry Reynolds, who joined the Kings that first year in Sacramento. “He was all by himself; he didn’t even have an assistant for many years. We charter (flights) now and it probably takes five people to do what Billy did back then. I seriously don’t know how he was able to get it all done.”
There are stories of buses not showing up or hotels not initially accepting the Kings because a previous bill was unpaid. Jones would step forward and take care of the problem with his words and sometimes with his own money, which would be reimbursed later.
“Jonesy was the man, he was just unflappable,” said Gary Gerould, the Kings announcer since their arrival in Sacramento. “He did everything in those days and was just so resourceful. He had the perfect temperament for the job. There were a lot of things behind the scenes that could have caused problems but he would just smooth them over before they became big ones.”
Although it can’t be found in a Kings media guide, Jones briefly served as head coach. We’re talking real brief, less than two minutes one night in Milwaukee when Phil Johnson got ejected. This was in the days when the lone assistant coach was often out scouting, which meant the next in charge was the trainer.
“Phil got thrown out late in the game and he turned to me and said, ‘you’re coaching now,’ ” Jones recalled. “One and a half minutes of being head coach was enough for me.”
When Jones finally did get an assistant trainer, he made sure to mentor him well, recognizing in 1993 Pete Youngman would probably be his successor. Like Jones, who was once a minor league baseball player, Youngman also had a baseball background, spending nine years in the Boston Red Sox organization.
“I got real lucky to get with Bill,” said Youngman, the team’s head trainer the past eight years. “I really learned from him. I saw how he operated. It was like a MasterCard commercial—priceless. Besides all the other things he did, he was an excellent trainer. He used a lot of time-tested approaches to handling injuries that still work.”
Watch Youngman closely on the sideline and you will see him often marking down information on a 4-by-6 index card. He keeps track of personal fouls, team fouls and timeouts.
“A lot of other trainers have these elaborate sheets they use, but I’m still using the index card, just like Jonesy did,” Youngman proudly said. As good as he was at his job, Jones was known around ARCO Arena better as a person. A trusted friend who had a good sense of humor, was always cheerful, could serve as confidant, and “just a great human being,” said Gerould.
Reynolds said there was an unwritten rule concerning new people who joined the organization. Call it the Jonesy rule.
“If they couldn’t get along with someone like Bill Jones, we didn’t want them in the organization, because they were probably a bad guy,” Reynolds said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Sacramento Kings organization lost a legendary figure yesterday when Bill Jones passed away at the age of 69 after a long bout with cancer. ‘Jonesy’ was the Kings’ trainer for 23 seasons before retiring in 1995, giving way to current Kings’ trainer Pete Youngman.
Rest in peace, Jonesy.
