Former Kansas players on the 1966 team Walt Wesley, left, and JoJo White stand with then head coach Ted Owens as they are honored at halftime of the South Florida game on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Jo Jo White, whose jersey hangs in the rafters of both Allen Fieldhouse and the NBA’s Boston Garden, next will be immortalized in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

White, 68, a two-time All-American at KU in 1968 and ’69, a gold-medal winner in the 1968 Olympics and a seven-time all-star and two-time NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, learned Monday he will be the 18th Jayhawk to be enshrined in the Hall, which is named in honor of the game’s inventor and KU’s first coach, Dr. James Naismith.

“I’m so excited and blessed to have the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame,” White told the Boston Globe on Monday. “Words cannot express the way I feel at this time, just so very happy and overwhelmed.”

White averaged 17.6 points and 4.9 assists over 12 NBA seasons and was MVP of the NBA Finals in 1976. The St. Louis native scored 1,286 points at KU, which ranks 29th all-time. He helped the Jayhawks to two Big Eight titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances.

“I am thrilled. As I just told him, he brought a commitment to the court every day. I cannot remember him ever having a bad practice,” White’s college coach, Ted Owens, said Monday.

“He was focused on being a great player, and he became that great player. He influenced the game in so many ways. I remember going into the dressing room in Stillwater (Oklahoma) one night. I said to the guys, ‘We’ve never had a point guard that influenced a game more than Jo Jo did tonight.’ He had three points but he dominated the game defensively and with his passing and so forth. He was so unselfish and could score if needed, do whatever it took. I’m thrilled for him and honored to have been a part of his life.”

White also accounted for a bundle of KU wins by playing unofficial recruiter. He’s the Jayhawk who, one summer, told Owens to head over to Robinson Gym to check out a high schooler in town for band camp.

That player turned out to be KU great Bud Stallworth.

“I’m so happy for Jo Jo. He’s like a big brother to me. Jo Jo was one of the main reasons I got a chance to come to the University of Kansas. We’ve been friends forever, since that time,” Stallworth said Monday.

“He’s a great friend — one of the greatest players I’ve ever had a chance to play with or against.”

Stallworth explained: “Jo Jo was a great player. He could score, pass and defend. He also was leader of the team. He was relentless in understanding the game. I think the greatest game I ever saw him play … he beat the Phoenix Suns that one time in the playoffs. They had a triple-overtime game. He may have played the whole game including the overtimes.”

En route to MVP honors of the 1976 NBA Finals, the Celtics’ White scored 33 points and dished nine assists in a 128-126 three-OT win over Phoenix in Game Five in Boston. He played 60 minutes of a possible 63. The Celts won the series in six games.

“I think it’s the greatest honor,” Owens said of induction in the Naismith Memorial Hall. “He had a great college career, and he and Spencer Haywood led the Olympic team in ’68 to the championship when we weren’t supposed to win. He had the great pro career and always handled it with such grace.

“Jo would come back every summer and help us with basketball camp. I talk to people today who had been to the camp and say the thing they remember was sitting and talking to Jo Jo. He’d be sitting in the lobby and there would be a line of kids there.

“You are so happy when people receive a great honor that they deserve. He earned it,” Owens stated.

White will be enshrined during Hall of Fame weekend, Sept 10-11 in Springfield. White will be joined by 39-year NBA referee Dick Bavetta, two-time College Coach of the Year John Calipari, four-time NBA All-Star Haywood, eight-time NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo and three-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie. They join the five directly elected members who were announced during NBA All-Star Weekend in February — Louis Dampier voted in from the American Basketball Association (ABA) Committee, John Isaacs from the Early African American Pioneers Committee, Lindsay Gaze from the International Committee, Tom Heinsohn from the Veterans Committee and George Raveling from the Contributor Direct Election Committee.

Roy donates seat: North Carolina head coach/former KU coach Roy Williams on Monday donated Seat 13, Row A, Section 140 of Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium to the memory of the late Butch Ryan, dad of Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who died in August of 2013 at the age of 89.

Butch and Bo attended the Final Four together for decades, USA Today reported. The seat was to remain empty for Monday’s Wisconsin-Duke title game.

“Touching gesture from coach Williams,” Tweeted “Wisconsin Basketball.”