All-Time Greats: Curtis Jones is the best basketball player you've never heard of
Updated Jan 19, 2019; Posted Feb 17, 2016
DETROIT -- When it comes to talking about the greatest basketball players to come out of the state of Michigan, all of the usual names come up.
Chris Webber, Shane Battier, Jalen Rose, Derrick Coleman, George Gervin, Spencer Haywood - the list goes on and on for Michigan's greatest prep stars of the hardwood. Of course, the list of Michigan's all-time greats would not be complete without Magic Johnson.
Heck, Johnson is in the conversation of the best basketball player ever - regardless of region or era.
Yet, as far as legends go, there was one player before Magic's time that a rare few had the pleasure of watching. This player was so good, some said he could go coast-to-coast on the court in just three dribbles and finish with a dunk.
That player behind the legend is Curtis Jones.
Many people have never heard of him - and for good reason. Curtis Jones never played at a major college and he certainly never made it to the pros. Instead, he became the victim of a failed system that led him down a road of drug addiction, schizophrenia, mental hospitals, homelessness and illiteracy.
That's right. Curtis Jones was the basketball genius who couldn't even spell his own name.
Everything about Jones' life is as remarkable as it is tragic, all the way up to his death in 1999 at the age of 50. His story will even be told in a documentary coming out in March this year.
He was Detroit's original basketball magician.
"Curtis was Magic before Magic," said Perry Watson, someone who had played against Jones since they were both 10 years old. "He was just unbelievable."
Photo of Curtis Jones at age 32.
(Courtesy photo)
The Genius
Watson has seen plenty of great basketball talent throughout his high school career. He coached over a decade of high school basketball, a stint as an assistant at Michigan during the Fab Five era and added fifteen years as head coach at the University of Detroit.
Before all of that, however, Watson was a star basketball player at Detroit Southwestern High School. At that that time, Jones was the star of the city at Detroit Northwestern High School.
Watson remembers having to guard Jones, and vice-versa, during matchups throughout high school. The one thing that Watson always admired about Jones was his ability to get his teammates involved and run the floor.
"Curtis saw the game as an ability to make others better," Watson said. "We always went head to head against each other and I could look at the stat sheet and say that I outplayed Curtis because I could score a lot. But, when you looked at it, you could say he made this guy who was individually not good and that guy who could only play this way - he found ways to make all of them guys to become better. In turn, he made his team a winner."
Perhaps, there was no greater example of Jones' court awareness than the 1967 Detroit City championship. Not only was it a matchup between undefeated Northwestern and Detroit Pershing, it was the matchup between Jones and Spencer Haywood.
Plus, all of Detroit was watching on channel 50. It was the first high school basketball game to ever be broadcast on television in Michigan.
Of course, it was Jones that hit the game-winning shot, giving Northwestern a 63-61 victory. More amazing than Jones' game-winning shot, however, was his stat line for the game: 2 points, 25 assists.
That game, in particular, caught the eye of Buddy Moorehouse, the Vice President of Communications for the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. Moorehouse has been captivated by Jones' entire life story and will be releasing a documentary in March called Fouled Out: The Story of Curtis Jones.
"Detroit has created a lot of great players," Moorehouse said. "But the things that you would hear about Curtis was that he really was a genius when it came to basketball. He was so far ahead of his time, not only in his physical ability but in the way he thought about the game."
Curtis Jones (right) with Detroit Northwestern teammate John Mayberry.
(Courtesy photo)
The Victim
Fast forward a few years after Jones' game-winning shot against Pershing and Watson was a 21-year-old and getting ready to start his day as a student teacher at Detroit Northwestern High School. He went to let his students into his room for health class when he saw a familiar face walking down the hallway.
It was Jones.
"All of the sudden, I look down the hall and here comes Curtis walking down the hall," Watson said.
However, it was not a normal encounter.
"He totally was out of it," Watson added.
Jones was not himself and he had not been for a while - and Watson could tell. Drugs and mental problems had warped Jones' sense of reality as he approached Watson and the group of students.
The students laughed and sneered at Jones as he thought he was still in high school, getting ready to play Watson in a game later in the week. After Watson conversed with poor Jones for a few minutes to try and get him back to reality, he made sure security helped Jones make his way out of the school.
Before starting class, Watson made sure he let his students know who that confused man was.
"I said, 'Y'all laughing at him like he's some neighborhood drug addict? Let me tell you the greatness of this guy,'" Watson said.
How did Jones fall so quickly in just a few years?
Despite his inability to read and write, teachers and administrators not only let Jones play basketball, they let him graduate from high school. It did not matter that he was kept in the special education programs and then thrust into basketball games. He could help teams win.
Amazingly, Jones even got into a junior college in Idaho in an attempt to try and get grades in order to play for a spot at the University of Michigan. Of course, that endeavor ended up being a disaster as, after a year and a half, Jones was still never taught how to read or write. He was just there to play basketball.
Jones was just a basketball player to those that paid any attention to him. Yet, no one out there cared enough to give him the basic necessities to succeed in life.
"It really was just a case of that people - the adults who were in charge of everything - were so focused on his basketball talent and his basketball greatness that they didn't bother to make sure he was getting an education," Moorehouse said. "He was just kind of kicked through the system in middle school, high school ... Very few people even bothered to find out that he was illiterate because he was so good at basketball."
Jones tried suing his former schools and the University of Michigan because he felt like he was getting taken advantage of. Yet, his unprecedented lawsuit ended up not gaining any ground and Jones ended up leaving the situation defeated.
Photo of Curtis Jones.
(Courtesy photo)
The Tragic Decline
When Jones returned to Detroit, he became a legend at Detroit's St. Cecilia's gym, becoming a star on the court once again, playing against any top talent that came through the door. He exposed himself to a new generation, including a young Jalen Rose.
Away from the court, however, Jones had no job and no income. Eventually, Jones began to experiment with drugs. At one point, Jones crossed paths with Watson while Watson was still in college.
"He had told me that he had gotten involved in drugs," Watson said. "LSD and all of those psychedelic type of drugs. He said it was his way of 'trying to exist.'"
It was one of the last times Watson saw Jones before he showed up completely disoriented in the hallways of Northwestern a couple of years later.
Then, in his mid 20s the drugs began to take over and Jones showed up less and less at Cecilia's. He developed schizophrenia and began to spend time in and out of mental hospitals.
"The deterioration of his body took over his basketball ability," Moorehouse said.
Yet, Jones would still make random appearances at courts and events, coming and going like a phantom.
In the early 80s, Watson was running a youth basketball camp with Pistons great Isaiah Thomas. Once again, Watson had an unexpected encounter with Jones.
By that time, it looked like Jones' destructive lifestyle had been taking a toll on his thin, roughly 6-foot frame. Yet, there he was, asking for a basketball. Although Thomas looked a bit confused, Watson convinced him to give Jones a chance.
"(Thomas), the way he is, he threw Curtis the basketball," Watson recalled. "Curtis started handling the basketball between his legs, dribbling with one finger."
And that became Jones' thing. He would show up at St. Cecilia's and, in between games, try and put on whatever show he could with a basketball. It was the only environment Jones knew.
It was the only environment where Jones was not a failure.
"One of the real tragic things about this whole thing is that there's no footage that exists of Curtis playing," Moorehouse said. "Those tapes have long since been destroyed."
Basketball was the only gift that Jones could share with the world. If no footage is ever recovered, it may never be shared again. All that will live on about Jones are the stories, which is why Moorehouse is so compelled to share his documentary.
The Legend
Out of all of the tragedy, Jones' life story provides many lessons. One, or course, is the importance of education.
"One of the main reasons why we are doing the film is to raise the whole idea why literacy is important by reaching kids with a message that they can relate to," Moorehouse said, who hopes to show the film at basketball camps around the country. "Now, we're looking at it for a release in March to coincide with March's reading month and, also, the NCAA basketball tournament."
Watson sees relevant culture topics arise in the life of Jones, including the issue of mental health.
"What we're dealing with now - and not just in Detroit but in a lot of major cities - is the effect of mental health care. We've had an assault on mental health care in the cities. You know, you get a guy who is a genius in one part of his life, man, you need the proper mental health care. Did Curtis get it? I would assume that, obviously, he didn't."
Of all of the players that have fallen through the cracks over the years, none probably fell as far as Jones.
"Maybe, if Curtis had been guided another way, maybe some of that tragedy wouldn't have come about," Watson said.
Yet, Jones continued to fall on the wrong side of the line that separates success and failure.
In the end, that may be all Jones is known for.
"Just one of the greatest that most people have never heard of," Watson said.
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MLive has started its search for the greatest high school boys basketball player in Michigan history. Starting the search by finding the best players in each region, please take time to vote as much as once per hour on who you think is the best player in Detroit prep basketball history.
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