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Cusumano: Jo Jo White was best basketball player to ever come out of St. Louis

Maybe one day Jayson Tatum or Brad Beal will have a better basketball resume, but right now, Jo Jo White is the best basketball player to come from St. Louis.
Jan 20, 2014; Memphis, TN, USA; Former NBA player JoJo White receives the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award prior to the game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans at FedExForum. Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY

I love the game of basketball. My wife once accused me of liking basketball than I liked her. My response, “Yes, but I like you more than tennis.”

The game is my life. It’s what I have watched, studied and adored since I was 5. I am here to tell you the best basketball player to ever come from our area is Jo Jo White. He passed away at the age of 71. Can you think of anybody from our town who has this basketball resume?

  • A Gold Medal at the Olympics
  • 2 World Championships
  • 1 NBA FINALS MVP
  • 7 NBA All-Star Games
  • A Hall of Famer

Four years ago he came to town. We took him to his old high school, McKinley, and had him shooting jumpers. He was already having troubles with his memory, but he had no trouble knocking down shots, it was muscle memory. The elbow was properly tucked, the backspin was perfect and the follow through was accentuated. He still had it.

Maybe one day Jayson Tatum or Brad Beal will have a better basketball resume. Bill Bradley did a lot of great things but nobody would ever say Bradley was better than Jo Jo. The only one in the conversation with JoJo is Easy Ed Macauley.

Easy Ed also went to 7 All-Star games, but JoJo had more championship and about 3,000 more points.

Rick Telander once wrote a book titled, “Heaven is a Playground.” I just hope, for Jo Jo’s sake, there is a playground in heaven.

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