Caldwell Jones, American basketball player and coach (b. 1950)
Caldwell "Pops" Jones (August 4, 1950 – September 21, 2014) was an American professional basketball player.
Jones was drafted out of Albany State College by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 14th pick in the 1973 NBA draft. He played three seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most extensively with the 76ers.
Jones led the ABA in blocked shots in the 1973–74 season, and played in the 1975 ABA All-Star Game. He shares (with Julius Keye) the ABA's all-time record for blocked shots in a game with 12.Jones' brothers, Charles, Wil and Major all played at Albany State and in the NBA. The most prominent of the foursome, Caldwell was best known as the least flamboyant member of the high-powered 76ers teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Playing alongside Julius Erving and company, Jones did not need to score much with Philadelphia, so he concentrated on rebounding, shotblocking, and defense. A lanky yet strong 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) pivotman, his hustle, board work, and defense kept him in professional basketball for 17 years.
Jones played his final season at the age of 39, then the fifth-oldest NBA player ever. He finished with 10,241 points (in the NBA and ABA), but it had taken him 1,299 games to rack them up. No other player who scored 10,000 points had ever needed more than 1,200 games to do so.