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NBA champion, Jo Jo White dies at 71

NBA champion, Jo Jo White dies at 71

Jo Jo White, a member of two NBA championship teams and the NBA Finals MVP in 1976, has died at 71.


The Boston Celtics said in an official statement,  mourning one of their greatest players.

White, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, also helped lead the U.S. men's Olympic team to a gold medal in the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City.

The Celtics announced his death Tuesday night and issued a statement on Twitter, calling him "a champion and a gentleman; supremely talented and brilliant on the court, and endlessly gracious off of it."

The Celtics drafted White, a point guard, ninth out of Kansas, where he helped the Jayhawks to the NCAA tournament in 1966. Kansas lost to Texas Western (now UTEP) in a game later featured in the film Glory Road.

White played parts of 10 seasons for Boston. The seven-time All-Star also played for the Golden State Warriors and Kansas City Kings. He averaged 17.2 points, 4.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds during his 13-year career.

He retired in 1981, and the Celtics retired his No. 10 the next year.

White was working as a director of special projects and community relations with the Celtics at the time of his death.

Read statement below:

We are terribly saddened by the passing of the great Jo Jo White. He was a champion and a gentleman; supremely talented and brilliant on the court, and endlessly gracious off of it. Jo Jo was a key member of two championship teams, an NBA Finals MVP, a gold medal-winning Olympian, and a Hall of Famer. His contributions to the team’s championship legacy may have only been surpassed by the deep and lasting impact that he had in the community. The thoughts and sympathies of the entire Celtics organization are with the White family.

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