Charles Jones grew up in the Bedford- Stuyvesant area in Brooklyn, New York. He made a name for himself by playing for the Kenny Kings squad at the famous “Sole In The Hole” tournament in which he help his team won “chips.” He also appeared in the documentary Sole In The Hole that featured Kenny Kings and teammate Ed “Boger” Smith.
Jones was a product of Bishop Ford HS in which he was first team All-City in 1993. He took his talents to Rutgers in which the 6-foot-3 point guard averaged 13 points per game and nearly four assists per game. He decided to transferred to Long Island University in Brooklyn. At LIU he played for the legendary coach Ray Haskins who played a up tempo offense style that averaged 91.5 points per game.
Charles fit into the up tempo system and during the 1996-97 he led the Blackbirds to a 21-9 record and a NCAA Tournament berth. The led the nation in scoring as a junior with a 30.1 points per game. In his senior campaign he once again he led the nation by scoring 29.0 points per game in the 1997-98 season. At LIU, he finished with 1,772 career points which ranks fourth on the all-time list to this day. He won the Haggerty Award and was honorable mention All-American. Also he was two time Northeast Conference Player of the Year. To this day he is only one of six players to ever lead the Northeast Conference in both scoring and assists.
After his outstanding career at LIU he played two seasons in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers. Then he went on to play ten seasons overseas. He became a two time All-Star in Argentina playing for Logan Nacional.
Charles Jones is giving back to the game and became a youth and high school coach and mentor in the New York City area. In 2018, Jones was nominated in the Long Island University Athletics Hall of Fame. Today, he is the assistant men’s basketball coach at LIU under New York City basketball legend and NBA standout Rod Strickland. We honored Charles Jones for being one of the great players in the New York City basketball community.
Photo Credit – Getty Images
