Despite The Wait, Jo Jo White Is ‘Just Excited’ To Finally Make The Hall Of Fame

Jo Jo White is arguably the greatest basketball player to never make the Basketball Hall of Fame. The former two-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics made seven All-Star teams, was the MVP of the 1976 NBA Finals, and averaged 17.2 points, 4.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game over the course of his 13-year career.

Fortunately, that injustice was corrected earlier this year, when it was announced that White would finally make it to Springfield. In a feature published by the Boston Globe, White expressed his excitement on finally receiving the game’s highest honor.

“I’m just excited and I loved playing sports,” White said. “To touch the athletes you’ve played with, coaches that you had to deal with, and you find you’re getting very, very close to the team that you’re working with. What I’ve went through as a player, I’m just excited.

“I’m still rejoicing from where I’ve gone to where I am to what I had to go through to get where I am. I’ve gone through it.”

White also discussed his time with the Celtics and the mentality that made the team so successful.

“We were chosen by somebody else so we had to earn the right to move forward,” White said. “We had to credit our coaches and the organization for putting us in the position to succeed. It’s over now but we look back on what it took — it’s so many little things that are most important, as when you are going through the [life] process.

“I talked with Tom Heinsohn and we talked about what he had to go through as a coach to pass on what he had to pass on. The players might not like what you have to say but it works. From here on I get to pass my knowledge on because it’s not mine to keep.”

White will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sept. 11.

(via Boston Globe)

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