A Former Celtics Player Was Once Thrown 50 Feet Into A Fence By The Exhaust Of A Jet Plane: "All Of A Sudden I Went Flying Through The Air"

Former Celtics player Jim Barnes was once hurled 50 feet into a fence by the exhaust of a jet plane.

Credit: Fadeaway World

Jim Barnes came into the NBA with a lot of expectations after a stellar college career at UTEP. Nicknamed "Bad News" for the damage he did to his opponents on the court, Barnes was selected with the first pick of the 1964 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks and enjoyed quite a productive rookie season.

Barnes averaged 15.5 PPG and 9.7 RPG in the 1964-65 season to earn NBA All-Rookie First Team honors but injuries meant he would never quite develop into the star that many thought he would be. He was signed by the Boston Celtics in the 1968-69 season as a backup to Bill Russell and won a championship, although injuries prevented him from featuring in the playoffs. That wasn't the only misfortune for Barnes that season, however, as he suffered a scary accident on the 1st of January 1969.

"Probably shouldn’t let New Year’s Day go by without recognizing the 54-year anniversary of the Celtics’ Jim Barnes getting thrown 50 feet into a fence by a jet engine blast."

"Barnes would miss the next nine games."

"January 1, 1969."

One can only imagine how scary those moments would have been for him. He was, in a way, fortunate that he avoided more severe damage after being hurled a distance of 50 feet. Tom Sanders and Rich Johnson would have narrowly avoided it themselves and would have been counting their lucky stars.

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Jim Barnes Got To Be A Part Of The Greatest Dynasty In NBA History

Barnes at least won a championship at the end of that season as we mentioned earlier and it was the last of the 11 championships that the Celtics won in 13 seasons between 1956 and 1969. Russell retired after the season and the dynasty ended with him.

It was a remarkable run that will never be matched and Russell was the only one to have been on all 11 championship teams. His 11 rings are regarded as one of the most unbreakable records in NBA history and you really struggle to even see a scenario where a team wins so much in that period of time. The Golden State Warriors led by Stephen Curry are a great modern-day dynasty, having now won 4 titles in 8 seasons, which is an incredible accomplishment, but they don't even come to the Celtics.

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