Thursday, August 12, 2010

1976-77 Topps #33 Dwight Jones

Dwight Jones played basketball at the University of Houston for two seasons in 1971-72 and 1972-73. In his two years as a Cougar, he was a defensive force.

Some of his stats:
4th career rebounding average (13.7)
6th career blocked shots (155)
4th career blocked shots average (2.87)
9th career rebounds (380)
6th career rebounding average (14.1)
9th season rebounding average (13.3 in 1971-72)
Tied for 7th season blocked shots (97 in 1972-73)
7th season blocked shots average (3.6 in 1972-73)
2nd game blocked shots (14 vs Houston Baptist on 2/8/73)

Jones led the team in rebounding in both 1971-72 and 1972-73 and in blocked shots in 1972-73.

Amazingly he wasn't even named as an Honorable Mention All-American. He was inducted into the UH Hall of Honor in 2002.

Dwight was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (#9) of the 1973 NBA Draft. He played 10 seasons in the NBA for the Hawks, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, and LA Lakers.

He was a the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1972 US Olympic team. That team "won" the silver medal. They lost the finals to the Soviets in possibly the most controversial officiating in all of history. The entire team refused to accept their medals though. As painful as the UH-NC State game was, I think this game was even more heartbreaking. It was bad enough that the on court officials screwed over the US team, but also the off court basketball committee officials were involved. If you haven't seen the documentary :30 from Gold, I highly recommend it.

Today's card is the 1976 Topps #33. I don't know why everyone doesn't collect late '60s and '70s basketball card. Just look at this card. Love the afro. Love the mutton chops and goatee. Look at the necklace. Look at the awesome font. Look at the bright colors. Amazing.

Not only is the front of the card awesome, but the back is good too. Not only does it have his NBA stats, which you would expect, but it also includes his college stats. It even includes his freshman stats which aren't including in the UH media guide and records since freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity back then.


3 comments:

Commishbob said...

I pretty much gave up my interest in the Olympics after that game. I remember watching it with a bunch of my friends from the dorms. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was just ridiculous.

NTXCoog said...

I was only 4 when the 1972 Olympics were played so I remember very little of it from firsthand knowledge. But I do like the Olympics so I've watched several documentaries on them. I'm a particular fan of the Bud Greenspan's Olympic documentaries.

Of course, the 1972 Olympics may be the most fascinating for so many reasons. The terrorists attacks. The games in Germany for the 1st time since Hitler's Olympics. The basketball game. Mark Spitz. Olga Korbut. Frank Shorter's marathon and the fake runner at the end. Vasiliy Alekseyev was a beast. The documentaries The 1972 Munich Olympic Games: Bud Greenspan Remembers is great viewing. Also One Day in September is also worth seeing. Both should be required if you've only seen the movie Munich. And as I mentioned in the post :03 from Gold is amazing with all of the detail surrounding 3 seconds of a basketball game.

Charles @ Hoopography said...

There were so many moments of those Olympics that were unfortunately over shadowed by the terrorist attacks.