Jones was a four year starter at North Carolina Central University. The school seen moderate success most years with Jones and Jones put up decent numbers. He played 100 games at NCCU before going pro owning averages of 17 points and 9 rebounds.

The Boston Celtics drafted Jones with the 8th pick of the 1957 NBA draft. The 8th pick may seem low to draft a guy like Jones but there was only 8 teams in the NBA in 1957 so Jones was the last pick of the first round. The 1957 draft was also a fairly week draft with only Hot Rod Hundley (drafted 1st overall by Cincinnati) and Jim Krebs (drafted 3rd overall by Minneapolis) had long careers like Jones.

Jones joined an already established Boston Celtics team, who had previously won the NBA title, so he did not see much action his rookie season only appearing in 56 games and averaging 5 points. He became a more important player his second year and helped Boston win their first of 8 consecutive NBA titles.