He won the state high jump title twice, finishing second in his junior year to Bob McAdoo.

[12] As a senior, Jones broke the state record by clearing the bar at a height of 6 feet, 8 inches.

His squad lost to a Greensboro team that starred McAdoo, but South Mecklenburg won the championship a year later.

[15] He chose UNC as he connected with the coaching staff, which included Bill Guthridge and John Lotz.

[5] As a sophomore, he shot an ACC single-season record 66.8% from the floor while averaging 10.2 points and 6.3 rebounds and helped UNC get into the Final Four.

[17] The American Basketball Association (ABA)'s Carolina Cougars selected Jones after his junior season in the 1973 Special Circumstances Draft, but he wanted to finish his psychology degree and polish his game, so he returned to North Carolina for his senior year while the Cougars held on to his ABA rights.

[17] He turned in memorable performances against Duke that season, including a clutch steal and game-winning layup against them in March.

[3] With Brown's coaching and Jones in the frontcourt, Denver went 65–19 in 1974–75, a franchise record and 28 more wins than the previous season.

He also played in the 1976 ABA All-Star Game, where he scored 24 points with 10 rebounds, and was named to the All-ABA Second Team.

[28][26] The Nuggets, with stars David Thompson and Dan Issel, finished with a league-best 60–24 record, although they lost to the New York Nets in the Finals.

[29] He averaged a career-high 15.1 points and 8.3 rebounds with a .570 field-goal percentage, and started in his first NBA All-Star Game alongside Thompson and Issel.

[30][31] He also outpolled all other players in earning the first of eight straight selections to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, as he had the best defensive rating in the league.

[32] The following season Jones averaged 14.5 points, elevated his field-goal percentage to a league-leading .578, and returned to the All-Star Game.

[35] However, due to the phenobarbital he was taking for his epilepsy, his performance dipped in the playoffs, and they were eliminated in six games by the Seattle Supersonics in the Western Conference finals.

[42] They avenged their loss to the Celtics the previous season in an Eastern Conference finals rematch, but lost once again to the Lakers in six games.

[43] The arrival of star center Moses Malone from Houston for Caldwell prior to the 1982–83 campaign was seen as a gamechanger for the Sixers' title hopes.

Bobby Jones stole the ball and robbed the Milwaukee Bucks of a game, turning an almost-sure upset into a 111–109 overtime victory for the 76ers.

[15] After a Game 4 loss to Milwaukee, Philadelphia then swept through the rest of the playoffs, eventually sweeping the Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals.

[19] After the season ended, Jones won the first-ever NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award.

When Dean Smith heard that a couple of players were declining invitations as a form of protest, he got in touch with Jones.

[52] He played only five minutes in the Soviet Union's controversial win over the United States in the gold medal game.

[54] Those skills, along with being an ambidextrous finisher and being smart with his shot selection, helped give him a career field goal percentage of 56%.

said longtime 76ers teammate Julius Erving, "He's a player who's totally selfless, who runs like a deer, jumps like a gazelle, plays with his head and heart each night, and then walks away from the court as if nothing happened.

[8][49] In 2003, Jones cofounded a Charlotte, North Carolina–based religiously affiliated non-profit, 2xsalt, that supports underprivileged youth through sports, along with Bart Kofoed and former teammate David Thompson.

[66] At Carmel Christian, he also coached their tennis team, held basketball clinics there, and was their summer camp coordinator.

In 1978, stricken by a seizure in his kitchen one day, Jones fell onto a butcher block and gashed open his head.

[14] When a computer-generated ranking sponsored by Seagram Distillers rated Jones the NBA's "most consistent and productive player" in 1977, he donated the $10,000 prize to religious charities.

[69] Pat Williams, the general manager of the 76ers at the time, credited him for helping establish pregame chapel services, which all NBA teams still do to this day.

[1][2] He was inducted on September 6, 2019, with an introduction from Julius Erving and Charles Barkley, who filled in for his coach Billy Cunningham and David Thompson.

[13] On January 28, 2020 Joel Embiid requested and was granted permission by Jones to wear his retired jersey number 24 for the Sixers, in honor of the late Kobe Bryant.