Look up point in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Point or points may refer to the following:

Business and finance[link]

• Basis point, 1/100 of one percent, denoted bp, bps, and ‱
• Pivot point, a price level of significance in analysis of a financial market that is used as a predictive indicator of market movement
• Point (mortgage), a percentage sometimes referred to as a form of pre-paid interest used to reduce interest rates in a mortgage loan
• Reward points (see loyalty program), marketing strategy
• Vigorish point, the commission charged on a gambling bet or loanshark's loan

Engineering[link]

• Points, a contact breaker in an ignition system
• Points, a railroad switch (British English)
• Points of sail, a sailing boat's course in relation to wind direction
• Projectile point, a hafted archaeological artifact used as a knife or projectile tip

Entertainment[link]

• Le Point, a French weekly news magazine
• Point (album), a 2001 album by Cornelius
• Point #1, a 1999 album of Chevelle
• POINT Music, a record label
• Royalty points a way of sharing profit between companies and unit holders.

Geography[link]

• Point, a peninsula (see List of peninsulas)
• Point, Outer Hebrides

Mathematics[link]

• Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent
  • a shape that is indivisible
• Stationary point (or turning point), a point in a set of inputs to a function where the output ceases to change

Measurement units[link]

• Compass point, one of the 32 directions on a traditional compass, equal to one eighth of a right angle (11.25 degrees)
• Point (gemstone), 2 milligrams, or one hundredth of a carat
• Point, in hunting, the number of antler tips on the hunted animal (e.g.: 9 point buck)
• Point, for describing paper-stock thickness, a synonym of mil and thou (one thousandth of an inch)
• Point (typography), a measurement used in printing, the meaning of which has changed over time
• Paris point, 2/3 cm, used for shoe sizes 3 cm

Science[link]

• Point (coat color), animal fur coloration of the extremities
• Point, a data element in a SCADA system representing a single input or output
• Point Mutation, a change in a single nucleotide and therefore in a specific codon
• Point (amphetamines), one tenth of a gram.

Sports[link]

• Point, a fielding position in cricket
• Point, a unit of the score (game) in some sports and games:
  • Point (basketball), units obtained by scoring baskets during a game
  • Point (tennis), the smallest unit of scoring in tennis
  • Point, in ice hockey or lacrosse, a goal or assist a player earns during a game
• Points decision in boxing and some other fighting sports
• The point (ice hockey), the location of an ice hockey player
• Point guard, in basketball
• Points (association football)

Other[link]

• Point, in specialized character sets (e.g.: dot in Morse code, dots in Braille)
• Point, in typography, a dot character (e.g.: full stop, interpunct, decimal point, radix point)
• Point Class Cutter, a small vessel formerly used as a patrol craft by the United States Coast Guard
• Point man, the lead soldier or vehicle in a patrol
• Point of order, a matter raised during a debate concerning the rules of debating themselves
• Point system (driving), a system of demerits for driving offenses
• Vowel points: niqqud for the Hebrew language and harakat for Arabic
• En pointe, a technique in ballet

See also[link]

• Endpoint (disambiguation)
• The Point (disambiguation)
• Pointing (disambiguation)
• Prize
• All pages beginning with "Point"
• All pages with titles containing "Point"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Van Jones
Jones as the Council on Environmental Quality's Special Advisor for Green Jobs (2009)
Born	Anthony Kapel Jones (1968-09-20) September 20, 1968 (age 43) Jackson, Tennessee, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Tennessee, Martin Yale University
Known for	Former Special Advisor for Green Jobs 2009 Time 100 Most Influential People 2009 New York Times bestselling author
Website
Official website

Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American environmental advocate, civil rights activist, and attorney. Jones is a co-founder of three non-profit organizations. In 1996, he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a California non-governmental organization (NGO) working for alternatives to violence. In 2005, he co-founded Color of Change, an advocacy group for African Americans.^[1] In 2007, he founded Green For All, a national NGO dedicated to "building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty."^[2] His first book, The Green Collar Economy, was released on October 7, 2008, and reached number 12 on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[3] In 2008, Time magazine named Jones one of its "Heroes of the Environment".^[4] Fast Company called him one of the "12 Most Creative Minds of 2008".^[5]

In March 2009 Jones was appointed by President Barack Obama to the newly created position of Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he worked with various "agencies and departments to advance the administration's climate and energy initiatives, with a special focus on improving vulnerable communities."^[6][7] In July 2009 he became "embroiled in a controversy"^[8] over his past political activities, including a public comment disparaging congressional Republicans, his name appearing on a petition for 911Truth.org, and allegations of association with a Marxist group during the 1990s.^[9][10] For these issues, Van Jones was heavily criticized by conservatives.^[11] Jones resigned from the position in early September 2009.^[8] "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in his resignation statement. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."^[9]

Jones is currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a senior policy advisor at Green For All. Jones also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Early life[link]

Jones and his twin sister Angela were born in 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee. Their mother was a teacher at a high school and their father was a principal at a junior high school. Jones' sister said that as a child he was "the stereotypical geek—he just kind of lived up in his head a lot."^[12] He has described his own childhood behavior as "bookish and bizarre."^[12] His grandfather was the senior bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church,^[13] and Jones sometimes accompanied his grandfather to religious conferences, where he would sit all day listening to the adults "in these hot, sweaty black churches".^[12] Jones was a young fan of John and Bobby Kennedy, and would pin photographs of them to a bulletin board in his room in the specially delineated "Kennedy Section". As a child he paired his Star Wars action figures with Kennedy-era political figures; Luke Skywalker was John, Han Solo was Bobby, and Lando Calrissian was Martin Luther King, Jr.^[14] He graduated from Jackson Central-Merry High School in 1986. Jones received his B.S. in communication and political science from the University of Tennessee at Martin (UT Martin).

Jones worked as an intern at the Jackson Sun (Tennessee), the Shreveport Times (Louisiana) and the Associated Press (Nashville bureau). He also helped to launch and spearhead a number of independent, campus-based publishing efforts. These publications included the Fourteenth Circle (University of Tennessee), the Periscope (Vanderbilt University), the New Alliance Project (state-wide in Tennessee), and the Third Eye (Nashville's African American community).^[15] Jones credits UT Martin for preparing him for life on a global stage:^[16]

I left UT Martin confident that I could take on any challenge and do well at it if I studied hard and worked hard and kept my nose clean. I really do think you can get absolutely anywhere from UT Martin . . . because of the quality of caring and individual attention.

After graduating from UT Martin, Jones left his home state to attend Yale Law School. In 1993, Jones earned his Juris Doctor and moved to San Francisco, California.

Social and environmental activism[link]

Earlier activism[link]

In 1992, while still a law student at Yale, Jones participated as a volunteer legal monitor for a protest of the Rodney King verdict in San Francisco. He and many other participants in the protest were arrested. The district attorney later dropped the charges against Jones. The arrested protesters, including Jones, won a small legal settlement. Jones later said that "the incident deepened my disaffection with the system and accelerated my political radicalization."^[17] In October 2005 Jones said he was "a rowdy nationalist"^[14] before the King verdict was announced, but that by August of that year (1992) he was a communist.^[14] His activism was also spurred on by witnessing racial inequality in New Haven, Connecticut: "I was seeing kids at Yale do drugs and talk about it openly, and have nothing happen to them or, if anything, get sent to rehab...And then I was seeing kids three blocks away, in the housing projects, doing the same drugs, in smaller amounts, go to prison."^[12]

When he graduated from law school, Jones gave up plans to take a job in Washington, D.C., and moved to San Francisco instead.^[14] He became a member^[18] of a "socialist collective" called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) that protested against police brutality.^[14]

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights[link]

In 1995, Jones started Bay Area PoliceWatch, the region's only bar-certified hotline and lawyer-referral service for victims of police abuse. The hotline started receiving fifteen calls a day.^[12] PoliceWatch began as a project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. "We designed a computer database, the first of its kind in the country, that allows us to track problem officers, problem precincts, problem practices, so at the click of a mouse we can now identify trouble spots and troublemakers," said Jones. "This has given us a tremendous advantage in trying to understand the scope and scale of the problem. Now, obviously, just because somebody calls and says, 'Officer so-and-so did something to me,' doesn't mean it actually happened, but if you get two, four, six phone calls about the same officer, then you begin to see a pattern. It gives you a chance to try and take affirmative steps."^[19] By 1996, Jones founded a new umbrella NGO, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which "consisted of a closet-like office and a computer that Jones had brought from his apartment."^[14]

From 1996-1997, Jones and PoliceWatch led a campaign which was successful in getting officer Marc Andaya fired from the San Francisco Police Department. Andaya was the lead officer accused of the in-custody death of Aaron Williams, an unarmed black man. In 1999 and 2000, Jones was a leader in the failed campaign to defeat Proposition 21, which sparked a student movement that made national headlines.^[20][21] In 2001, Jones and the Ella Baker Center launched the Books Not Bars campaign. From 2001 to 2003, Jones and Books Not Bars led a campaign to block the construction of a proposed "Super-Jail for Youth" in Oakland's Alameda County. Books Not Bars later went on to launch a statewide campaign to transform California's juvenile justice system.^[22]

Color of Change[link]

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Jones and James Rucker co-founded a Web-based grassroots organization to address Black issues called Color of Change. Color of Change's mission as described on its web site is as follows: "ColorOfChange.org exists to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone."^[1] Within two years of co-founding the organization, Jones moved on to other pursuits, but remains listed on the Color of Change website as "Former Staff".^[1][23]

Shift to environmentalism and Green for All[link]

By 2005, Jones had begun promoting eco-capitalism and environmental justice.^[24] In 2005 the Ella Baker Center expanded its vision beyond the immediate concerns of policing, declaring that "If we really wanted to help our communities escape the cycle of incarceration, we had to start focusing on job, wealth and health creation."^[22] In 2005, Jones and the Ella Baker Center produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration, held that year in San Francisco.^[25] It was the official beginning of what would eventually become Ella Baker Center's Green-Collar Jobs Campaign.

The Green-Collar Jobs Campaign was Jones' first concerted effort to meld his desire to improve racial and economic equality with his newer desire to mitigate environmental concerns. It soon took as its mission the establishment of the nation's first "Green Jobs Corps" in Oakland. On October 20, 2008, the City of Oakland formally launched the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a public-private partnership that will "provide local Oakland residents with job training, support, and work experience so that they can independently pursue careers in the new energy economy."^[26]

In September 2007, Jones attended the Clinton Global Initiative and announced his plans to launch Green For All, a new national NGO dedicated to creating green pathways out of poverty in America. The plan grew out of the work previously done at local level at the Ella Baker Center. Green For All would take the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign mission — creating green pathways out of poverty — national.

Green For All formally opened its doors on January 1, 2008. In its first year, Green For All organized "The Dream Reborn," the first national green conference where the majority of attendees were people of color. It cohosted, with 1Sky and the We Campaign, a national day of action for the new economy called "Green Jobs Now." It launched the Green-Collar Cities Program to help cities build local green economies and started the Green For All Capital Access Program to assist green entrepreneurs. As part of the Clean Energy Corps Working Group, it launched a campaign for a Clean Energy Corps initiative which would create 600,000 'green-collar' jobs while retrofitting and upgrading more than 15 million American buildings.^[27]

In reflecting on Green For All's first year, Jones wrote, "One year later, Green For All is real – and we have helped put green collar jobs on the map... We have a long way to go. But today we have a strong organization to help get us there."^[27]

Jones advocates a combination of conservation, regulation and investment as a way of encouraging environmental justice and opposing environmental racism. In an interview for the "EON Deep Democracy Interview Series" Jones spoke of a "third wave of environmentalism":

The first wave is sort of the Teddy Roosevelt, conservation era which had its day and then, in 1963, Rachel Carson writes a book, Silent Spring, and she's talking about toxics and the environment, and that really kind of opens up a whole new wave. So it's no longer just conservation but it's conservation, plus regulation, trying to regulate the bad, and that wave kind of continued to be developed and got kind of a 2.5 upgrade because of the environmental justice community who said, "Wait a minute, you're regulating but you're not regulating equally, the white polluters and white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people-of-color communities, because they don't have a racial justice frame." ... Now there's something new that's beginning to gather momentum, and it's conservation plus regulation of the bad, plus investment in the good ... beginning to put money into the solutions as well as trying to regulate the problem.^[28]

Other[link]

Jones has served on the boards of numerous environmental and nonprofit organizations, including 1Sky, the National Apollo Alliance, Social Venture Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers, Julia Butterfly Hill's "Circle of Life" organization and Free Press. He currently serves on the board of trustees at Demos.^[29] He was also a Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress and a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. He was a keynote speaker at the youth conference Power Shift 2009 and 2011 in Washington, D.C.^[1]

During the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, Jones served as Arianna Huffington's statewide grassroots director.^[30]

[edit] The Green Collar Economy

Van Jones meets with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom at The Green Collar Economy book signing, October 14, 2008.

On October 7, 2008, HarperOne released Jones' first book, The Green Collar Economy. The book outlines his "substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country—the failing economy and our devastated environment."^[31] The book has received favorable reviews from Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Laurie David, Paul Hawken, Winona LaDuke and Ben Jealous.^[32]

In the book, Jones contended that invention and investment will take us out of a pollution-based grey economy and into a healthy new green economy.^[33] Jones wrote:

We are entering an era during which our very survival will demand invention and innovation on a scale never before seen in the history of human civilization. Only the business community has the requisite skills, experience, and capital to meet that need. On that score, neither government nor the nonprofit and voluntary sectors can compete, not even remotely.

So in the end, our success and survival as a species are largely and directly tied to the new eco-entrepreneurs—and the success and survival of their enterprises. Since almost all of the needed eco-technologies are likely to come from the private sector, civic leaders and voters should do all that can be done to help green business leaders succeed. That means, in large part, electing leaders who will pass bills to aid them. We cannot realistically proceed without a strong alliance between the best of the business world—and everyone else.

Jones had a limited publicity budget and no national media platform. But a viral, web-based marketing strategy earned the book a #12 debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Jones and Green For All used "a combination of emails and phone calls to friends, bloggers, and a network of activists" to reach millions of people.^[34] The marketing campaign's grassroots nature has led to Jones calling it a victory not for him but for the entire green-collar jobs movement. Jones was featured on the grassroots radio program, Sea Change Radio, talking about the book and about creating a "new, clean and green economy...in a way that's inclusive." The Green Collar Economy is the first environmental book authored by an African-American to make the New York Times bestseller list.^[27]

White House Council on Environmental Quality[link]

On March 10, 2009, it was announced that Jones would serve as Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.^[7] Jones, while an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama, originally did not intend to work for the White House, later explaining "when they asked the question, I burst out laughing because at the time it seemed completely ludicrous that it would even be an option. I think what changed my mind was interacting with the administration during the transition process and during the whole process of getting the recovery package pulled together."^[35]

His position with the Obama Administration was described by columnist Chadwick Matlin as "switchboard operator for Obama's grand vision of the American economy; connecting the phone lines between all the federal agencies invested in a green economy."^[36] Jones did not like the informal "czar" term sometimes applied to his job, and described his position as "the green-jobs handyman. I'm there to serve. I'm there to help as a leader in the field of green jobs, which is a new field. I'm happy to come and serve and be helpful, but there's no such thing as a green-jobs 'czar.'"^[37]

Controversy and resignation[link]

After his White House appointment, Jones began receiving criticism from media sources such as WorldNetDaily and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who featured Jones on fourteen episodes of his show.^[38][39] They criticized Jones for his past political activities, including his involvement with STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) and his support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a prisoner sentenced to death for murdering a police officer.^[40][41] In July 2009 Color of Change, an organization that Jones founded in 2005 and left in 2007, launched a campaign urging advertisers on Beck's Fox News show to pull their ads, in response to comments by Beck stating President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."^[42] In September 2009, DefendGlenn.com, a website launched in response to the boycott campaign, posted a video on YouTube of a February 2009 event at which Jones called Congressional Republicans "assholes".^[43][44] Jones responded by saying that the comments "were clearly inappropriate" and that "they do not reflect the experience I have had since I joined the [Obama] administration."^[44]

Several days later, Jones came under additional criticism for his name appearing on a 2004 petition from 911Truth.org that suggested the Bush Administration "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen".^[45][46] Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), the chairman of the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, publicly criticized Jones, while Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri) urged Congress to investigate Jones' "fitness" for the position.^[46][47] Bob Beckel, a Fox News political analyst who was formerly an official in the Carter administration, became the first prominent Democrat to call for Jones' resignation.^[48] In response to the criticisms, Jones issued a statement that said, "In recent days some in the news media have reported on past statements I made before I joined the [Obama] administration — some of which were made years ago. If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize." Of the 9/11 petition specifically, he said, "I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."^[45][46]

Wikinews has related news: Van Jones environmental jobs adviser to US President Barack Obama resigns

After what Jones described as a "vicious smear campaign" by "opponents of reform [of health care and clean energy]",^[49] he resigned on September 5, saying that he could not "in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future".^[49] During an interview on ABC's This Week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs thanked Jones "for his service to the country" and said that Obama "doesn't endorse" Jones' previous association with the 9/11 Truth movement, his comments regarding race relations and politics, and his support for Mumia Abu-Jamal.^[41][50] Some liberal commentators expressed continued support for Jones, singling out the efforts of Glenn Beck to force his resignation.^[51] Arianna Huffington predicted Beck's efforts would backfire by freeing Jones from being "tied to his desk with a sock in his mouth".^[52] John McWhorter, in The New Republic, related his analysis to the Obama presidency in general, saying that allowing Jones to resign was "spineless".^[53]

In a post-resignation interview with The Washington Post, Jones said he did not have "any bitterness or anger about the situation" and expressed his "hope and belief" that people would judge him based on his work.^[54] Later, in an op-ed about the resignation of another Obama administration official, Shirley Sherrod, Jones described the media as having "rushed to judgment" about him, and he denied having ever signed the 911Truth petition.^[55] On July 27, 2010, the group 911truth.org released a statement that they had "researched the situation and were unable to produce electronic or written evidence that Van agreed to sign the Statement".^[56] In 2009 when first questioned about it, Jones said that he hadn't fully reviewed the statement before he signed.^[57] Two other signatories of the statement, Rabbi Michael Lerner and historian Howard Zinn, told Politico's Ben Smith they felt they had signed a petition of more limited scope, one that asked only for an investigation into the attacks.^[57]

Janice Matthews, Director of 911Truth.org, said Jones and two other signatories "requested their names be removed. That has been done." ^[58]

Post-White House activity[link]

Jones speaking at Power Shift 2011, an annual youth summit, in Washington, D.C. on April 15, 2011

In February 2010, Jones became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he leads their Green Opportunity Initiative "to develop a clearly articulated agenda for expanding investment, innovation, and opportunity through clean energy and environmental restoration".^[59] At the same time, he received appointments at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.^[60] Jones is also a senior policy advisor at Green For All.^[61]

On February 26, 2010, Jones received the NAACP President's Award at the 41st annual NAACP Image Awards.^[62]

On October 2, 2010, Jones spoke at the One Nation Working Together rally in Washington, DC, where he spoke about linking the fight against poverty with the fight against pollution, saying that green jobs would bring "real solutions" instead of "hateful rhetoric".^[63][64]

On April 15, 2011, Jones spoke at Powershift 2011 in Washington, DC, where he addressed over 10,000 students on issues of climate justice and standing up for underrepresented communities. Powershift 2011 was the largest youth activism and organizing training in U.S. history.

In 2011, Jones worked with MoveOn.org to launch the Rebuild the Dream campaign, which was intended to start a progressive American Dream movement to counter the Tea Party movement.^[65] Following a kickoff on June 23, 2011,^[66][67] Rebuild the Dream announced a "Contract for the American Dream", intended as a counter to the Tea Party-supported "Contract from America",^[68] and held house meetings in July.^[69][70] Jones claimed 127,000 people had become involved in the movement by the end of July 2011.^[71]

At the beginning of October 2011, prior to a Rebuild the Dream conference in Washington, DC, Jones compared the Occupy Wall Street movement to an "American Autumn" comparable to the Arab Spring uprisings, saying, "You can see it right now with these young people on Wall Street. Hold onto your hats, we're going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and to rescue America's middle class."^[72]

At a speech in San Francisco in February 2012, Jones spoke out on behalf of underwater home owners, saying "”They call it class warfare…if anything, it’s warfare against people who have no class…they won’t even return our phone calls when our houses are underwater.”^[73]

Awards and honors[link]

Jones' awards and honors include:^[74]

• 1997-1999 - Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship
• 1998 - Reebok International Human Rights Award
• 2000 - International Ashoka Fellowship
• 2008 - Best Dressed Environmental List (#1 of 30); Sustainable Style Foundation^[75]
• 2008 - Time Magazine Environmental Hero^[4]
• 2008 - Elle Magazine Green Award
• 2008 - One of the George Lucas Foundation's "Daring Dozen"
• 2008 - Hunt Prime Mover Award; Hunt Alternatives Fund
• 2008 - Campaign for America's Future "Paul Wellstone Award"
• 2008 - Global Green USA "Community Environmental Leadership" Award
• 2008 - San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award
• 2008 - Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship^[76]
• 2008 - World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader"
• 2009 - Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award^[77]
• 2009 - Eco-Entrepreneur Award, Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Innovation; Howard University
• 2009 - Individual Thought Leadership, Energy & Environment Awards; Aspen Institute^[78]
• 2010 - NAACP President's Award^[62]
• 2010 - Commonwealth Club of California - Inforum's 21st Century Visionary Award
• 2010 - Global Exchange Human Rights Award Honoree.^[79]

Bibliography[link]

• Jones, Van; Conrad, Ariane (2008). The Green Collar Economy. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-165075-8. 
• Jones, Van (2012). Rebuild the Dream. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 1-56858-714-7. 

See also[link]

	Barack Obama portal
	Biography portal
	California portal
	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Environment portal
	Politics portal

• List of people from Tennessee
• List of U.S. executive branch czars
• List of Yale Law School alumni
• Green collar worker
• Social justice

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Blog entries at The Huffington Post
• Blog entries at Grist.org
• Van Jones at TED Conferences
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Van Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Van Jones on Twitter
• Van Jones on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Van Jones in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• 'Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in California', The Nathan Cummings Foundation (2004)
• 'Van Jones: Speak Truth to Power Defender' Speaktruth.org (2007 interview)
• 'Miracles', Jones' biographical keynote at the Craigslist Foundation's 'Nonprofit Boot Camp'
• Van Jones Resigns Citing "Vicious Smear Campaign Against Me" - video report by Democracy Now!
• Van Jones interview with Tavis Smiley at PBS (2010)
• Van Jones: Inforum's 21st Century Visionary Award (Commonwealth Club) (Full video 01:10:10 on FORA.tv)

Rajon Rondo

Rondo with the Celtics playing in a game against the Knicks
No. 9 – Boston Celtics
Point guard
Personal information
Born	(1986-02-22) February 22, 1986 (age 26) Louisville, Kentucky
Nationality	American
High school	Eastern HS (Middletown, Kentucky), Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia)
Listed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight	186 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College	Kentucky
NBA Draft	2006 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Pro career	2006–present
Career history
2006–present	Boston Celtics
Career highlights and awards
NBA Champion (2008) 3× NBA All-Star (2010–2012) All-NBA Third Team (2012) 2× NBA All-Defensive First Team (2010–2011) 2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2009, 2012) NBA All-Rookie Second Team (2007) NBA steals leader (2010) NBA assists leader (2012)

Rajon Pierre Rondo (born February 22, 1986) is an American professional basketball point guard with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Rondo attended Eastern High School and Oak Hill Academy for his high-school basketball career, before receiving a scholarship from the University of Kentucky. He played for two years at Kentucky before declaring for the 2006 NBA Draft, represented by agent Bill Duffy.

During the draft, Rondo was selected 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns, and was subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics, where he made his NBA debut as a rookie during the 2006–07 season. He played a supporting role before he established himself as the starting point guard for the Celtics during the 2007–08 season. That season, Rondo earned his first NBA Championship, playing alongside All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. His breakout performance came during the 2009 NBA Playoffs, where he nearly averaged a triple-double, and helped his team take the eventual Eastern-conference champion Orlando Magic seven games in the Eastern semi-finals.^[1] He ranks eighth in Celtics history in assists and fifth in steals.^[2]

Early life[link]

Rondo was born on February 22, 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky to Amber Rondo.^[3] He has three siblings: Dymon, William and Anton.^[4] He had little contact with his father, who left his family when he was seven years old.^[4] To support the family, his mother worked the third shift at Philip Morris USA, a tobacco company.^[4] Rondo was first interested in football, before his mother steered him towards basketball because she felt that the sport would be less punishing on his skinny frame.^[4] After Rondo became serious about basketball, he attended Louisville's Eastern High School for three years where he played under head coach Doug Bibby. During his junior year at Eastern High School, he averaged 27.9 points, 10.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists which earned him a spot on the All-State honors and was named the 7th Region Player of the Year. He transferred to Virginia's Oak Hill Academy for his senior year where he averaged 21.0 points per game (ppg), 3.0 rebounds per game (rpg) and 12.0 assists per game (apg) and finished the 2003–04 season with a 38–0 record.^[5] In his senior year at Oak Hill Academy, Rondo broke Jeff McInnis's single-season school record of 303 assists, while averaging a double-double. There, he included two efforts of 27 assists and a single-game school record of 31, merely four away from the all-time national record.^[5] He also had a 55 point game in high-school, second highest all-time in Oak Hill Academy, surpassed only by Calvin Duncan with 61.^[6] Rondo was named to the McDonald's All-American Team in 2004 and scored a total of 14 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds in the all-star game. He also participated in the 2004 Jordan Capital Classic game, logging 12 points, 5 assists and 4 steals. He ended his career as Oak Hill Academy's all-time assists leader in a single season with 494 assists, surpassing Jeff McInnis.^[7]

College career[link]

Rondo committed to University of Kentucky over hometown University of Louisville.^[8] Rondo, along with All-Americans Joe Crawford and Randolph Morris, gave Kentucky the top-rated recruiting class for 2004 according to Rivals.com.^[9] Rondo led Kentucky to several wins including clutch-shot victories against the University of Louisville, South Carolina and Central Florida, but Kentucky failed to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament in either Rondo's freshman or sophomore seasons. He was named to the SEC All-Freshmen Team.^[10] He set a Kentucky Wildcats record for most steals in single-season, with a total of 87 steals in his freshman year and made at least one steal in every game.^[11] He finished his freshman year at Kentucky averaging 8.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals.^[12]

In his sophomore year he had a career high 12 assists against Ole Miss, despite playing just 23 minutes, and 25 points against Louisville.^[13] Rondo also set another Kentucky Wildcats record for most rebounds in a game by a guard, with 19 rebounds in an early season loss to Iowa.^[14] He was not known for being a shooter, however, going 18–66 from three with a 57.1% FT average. He averaged 11.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.1 steals per game in his sophomore year.^[12] Rondo was also named to the 2005 USA Men's Under-21 World Championship Team, which traveled to Argentina for the FIBA World Championships.^[15] He averaged 11.0 ppg and 4.5 apg in the eight-game tournament, garnering much attention from NBA scouts. The USA U-21 team won a gold medal at the Global Games held in Texas in late July.

NBA career[link]

2006 NBA Draft[link]

Following the 2005–06 NCAA season, Rondo announced he would forgo his final two seasons at Kentucky and enter the NBA draft.^[16] Rondo was drafted 21st overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 NBA Draft. Phoenix then traded him to the Boston Celtics along with Brian Grant for the Cleveland Cavaliers' first-round draft pick in the 2007 NBA Draft and cash considerations.^[17] He was the first point guard to be chosen in the draft.^[18] In another draft-day deal, the Celtics acquired Sebastian Telfair from the Portland Trail Blazers, finally uniting the backcourt Rick Pitino had envisioned at Louisville.^[19] He was signed by the Boston Celtics on July 4, 2006.

Rookie season[link]

During his rookie season in the NBA, Rondo played a supporting role and would split time with Sebastian Telfair and Delonte West. Rondo only started in 25 games that season due to his initial backup role to Telfair. He made his NBA regular season debut on November 1, 2006, in a home loss against the New Orleans Hornets.^[20] In his rookie season, he lacked on his jump shot which resulted in him slashing to the basket for a teardrop or layup. While coming off the bench, he managed to score a career-high 23 points against the Toronto Raptors,^[3] and record his first career double-double in a road losing effort against the Washington Wizards.^[21] In his first career start, he matched his career-high against the Los Angeles Clippers, though the line-ups were constantly being shuffled between Telfair and Rondo at the point guard.^[3] After officially becoming a starter, he began to receive more playing time (career-high forty-seven minutes of playing time)^[3] and show improvement (career-high fourteen rebounds against the San Antonio Spurs,^[22] and a career-high seven steals against the Indiana Pacers).^[3] As the mid-season approached, his numbers began to increase,^[23] which earned him an All-Rookie Second Team selection.^[24] He finished the season with an average of 6.4 ppg and 3.8 apg,^[25] ranking in the top ten in the NBA in steals (128)^[26] and also ranking in the top ten among rookies in several other categories, including first in steals, second in assists and sixth in minutes.^[23] In the end, however, the Celtics finished the season with a 24–58 win-loss record and failed to qualify for the playoffs.

2007–08 season[link]

Rondo in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks.

After Telfair and West were traded during the offseason of the 2007–08 season, Rondo secured a spot in the starting lineup, starting in every game. Surrounded by All-Stars Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, he quickly became a steady, consistent player.^[27] In his 77 games played, he averaged 10.6 points per game (ppg), 5.1 assists per game (apg) and 4.2 rebounds per game (rpg).^[25] His role as a playmaker reflected in him leading the team in assists and steals. In a game against the New Jersey Nets, Rondo suffered a lower back injury late in the third quarter, forcing him to miss the next four games.^[28] He made his successful return from injury and to the starting lineup in a road win against the New York Knicks.^[29] A week later, he matched his career-high against the Miami Heat,^[30] and then scored a career-high 24 points in a home game against the Los Angeles Clippers the following month.^[31] During the All-Star break, he was selected to play on the Sophomore Team in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge and Youth Jam.^[32] Following the All-Star weekend, Rondo recorded a career-high 16 assists in a home victory against the Charlotte Bobcats.^[33] Despite his solid rookie year, there was much speculation about Boston needing a veteran point guard.^[34] In March, they signed veteran point guard Sam Cassell as a free agent to serve as a backup.^[34] The Celtics' best single-season improvement in NBA history earned them the number one seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Following the regular season, Rondo finished in the top five for the NBA Most Improved Player voting.^[35] Rondo made his playoff debut on April 20, 2008 against the Atlanta Hawks and finished the game with 15 points, 9 assists and 2 steals. The Celtics closed out the series in seven games, went on to defeat Cleveland in the next round, and then defeated the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the NBA Finals, facing the Los Angeles Lakers, Rondo recorded two strong performances, including a career-high 16 assists in Game 2. In Game 3, however, Rondo left the court in the third quarter after rolling his ankle.^[36] The ankle injury was considered a "non-factor", and Rondo eventually made his return in Game 4.^[37] In Game 6, the point guard posted a playoffs career-high 6 steals as the Celtics defeated the Lakers 4–2, giving Rondo his first NBA championship ring. After the game Lakers head coach Phil Jackson called Rondo the "star" of Game 6.^[34]

2008–09 season[link]

Rondo with a layup in a game against the New Orleans Hornets.

In his third NBA campaign, the Celtics began the season with the best starting record in NBA history and also set a franchise record with a nineteen-game winning streak.^[38] Rondo's numbers increased from his previous season performance; however, he was criticized for his shooting.^[39] He recorded his first career triple-double along with a career-high in assists (16 points, 13 rebounds and 17 assists), against the Indiana Pacers.^[40] In a home win against the New York Knicks, Rondo led the team to tie a franchise record with eighteen straight wins.^[41] However, after the winning streak was snapped the team struggled, losing seven out of nine games after ending the streak.^[42] Rondo—matched up with one of the league's quicker guards, Tony Parker—recorded 16 assists in a losing effort against the Spurs, one short of his season-high.^[43] Less than a week later against the Mavericks, he recorded his second career triple-double (19 points, 15 rebounds and 14 assists),^[44] and then recorded a career-high 32 points against the Phoenix Suns on his 23rd birthday.^[45] He became the first NBA athlete to sign an endorsement contract with Red Bull on April 17, 2009. He finished the season ranking fifth in the NBA in assists (8.2) and steals (1.9).^[46] The team finished the season as the second seed in the Eastern Conference, although they entered the playoffs without their injured All-Star power forward Kevin Garnett.

In the playoffs match-up against the Chicago Bulls, despite putting up a playoff career-high 29 points in Game 1, the Celtics lost in overtime.^[47] Boston won the next two games and in Games 2 and 4, Rondo recorded triple-doubles^[48] and became the first Celtic player with two triple-doubles in the same series since Larry Bird in 1986. He also became the first player with multiple triple-doubles in the same playoff series since Jason Kidd had three triple-doubles in the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals.^[49] In Game 6, he recorded a career-high 19 assists without a turnover, tying an NBA playoffs record.^[50] In the next round against the Orlando Magic, the Celtics lost the first game before Rondo's triple-double performance in Game 2 helped secure a home win. His third triple-double of the postseason tied Larry Bird's franchise record and also became the first to do that since Jason Kidd had four.^[51] However, the Celtics were defeated in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.^[52] During the postseason, Rondo nearly averaged a triple double with 16.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 9.8 assists.^[53]

2009–10 season[link]

During the 2009–10 season, Rondo averaged career highs in points (13.7), assists (9.8) and steals (2.3) and became the first Celtic to lead the league in steals.^[54] On November 2, 2009, Rondo signed a five-year extension with the Celtics worth a guaranteed $55 million.^[55] In a road victory against the Orlando Magic on Christmas day, Rondo recorded 17 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists, two assists shy of a triple double.^[56] Three days later, Rondo scored 30 points along to go with 15 assists in a road loss to the Golden State Warriors.^[57] On January 10, 2010, Rondo recorded his third regular-season career triple-double, with 22 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds against the Toronto Raptors.^[58] On January 28, 2010, he received his first NBA All-Star selection as a reserve on the Eastern Conference squad for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.^[59] He also competed in the 2010 H-O-R-S-E contest but lost In the finals to Kevin Durant.^[60] Rondo recorded his fourth regular-season career triple-double against the Denver Nuggets on March 24, 2010, with 11 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds.^[61] Two days later against the Sacramento Kings, Rondo entered the game tied with Rick Fox for a franchise record of most steals in a single-season (167), eventually establishing the record with a second-quarter steal from Sean May.^[62] In a game against the Houston Rockets on April 2, 2010, he broke Bob Cousy's franchise record for most assists in a single-season.^[63]

In the 2010 NBA Playoffs, the Celtics defeated the Miami Heat in five games and faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. In Game 2, Rondo dished out 19 assists tying his career-high and also tying a franchise record for most assists in a playoff game.^[64] In Game 4, he recorded his fourth postseason triple-double along with a playoff career-high 29 points and 18 rebounds.^[65] He joined Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson as the only other player in NBA history to have 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists in a playoff game.^[66] The Celtics eventually defeated the Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games.^[67] In the Finals, the Celtics once again faced the Los Angeles Lakers, a team they previously beat in 2008. In Game 2, Rondo recorded his second triple-double of the postseason (19 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists),^[68] however, despite Rondo's performance, the Celtics succumbed to the Lakers in seven games.^[69]

2010–11 season[link]

In the first game of the 2010–11 season, Rondo put up 17 assists, which tied with Oscar Robertson for the third-most assists in a season opener.^[70] In the third game of the season, he dished out a career-high 24 assists along with a triple-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) against the New York Knicks.^[71] It tied him with Isiah Thomas as the only players in NBA history to have at least 24 assists in a triple-double.^[72] His total of 50 assists through the first three games of the season tied John Stockton's NBA record for most assists in the first 3 games of the season.^[72] In the next game against the Detroit Pistons, he finished the game with 17 assists for a total of 67 assists, which is the most assists in the teams first four games in NBA history.^[73] With a 15 assists effort the following day, Rondo again set a record for most assists through the first five games.^[74]

Rondo's season also began with injuries. He has played through plantar fasciitis in his feet.^[75] He missed three games in November due to a strained left hamstring.^[76] He sprained his left ankle in a win against the New York Knicks on December 15, 2010, and missed the next seven games.^[77] On April 22, in the third game of the first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks, Rondo had a triple-double with 20 assists.^[78] Rondo set a Celtics franchise record for most assists in a playoff game. He was also tied with LeBron James with 6 career triple-double in the playoffs until James had reached his seventh further on in the playoffs during Game 4 of the Finals.^[78][79] Rondo had the third best selling jersey in the league during the 2010-11 season, behind only James and Kobe Bryant.^[80]

2011–12 season[link]

On February 21, 2012, Rondo was named an injury replacement for Joe Johnson on the Eastern Conference roster at the 2012 NBA All-Star Game.^[81] With 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 20 assists against the Knicks on March 4, he joined Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, and Jason Kidd as the only players to have at least 15 points, rebounds, and assists in the same game.^[82] In a win against the Heat on April 1, Rondo registered another triple-double (16 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds).^[83] Rondo closed out the regular season with 24 consecutive games of 10+ assists. This is not only a Celtics franchise record, but is also the longest streak the NBA has seen since John Stockton logged a streak of 29 such games in 1992. Only Magic Johnson and Stockton have streaks longer than Rondo's, which is still considered active and will resume at the beginning of the 2012-13 regular season.^[84]

Rondo posted his sixth triple-double of the season (with 20 assists) in an overtime win against the Hawks on April 11.^[85] He had his first triple double of the 2012 playoffs against the same team on May 4,^[86] another on May 13 in the first game of the second round against the 76ers,^[87] and a third on May 26 in the last game of that round, helping the Celtics advance to the Eastern Conference finals.^[88] He joined Larry Bird as the only Celtics players to record a triple-double in a Game 7 and is tied with Wilt Chamberlain for the fourth-most postseason triple-doubles in NBA history.^[89] In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, Rondo scored a career high 44 points while grabbing 8 rebounds and adding 10 assists.^[90] According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Rondo is the only player in NBA history with 44 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds in a playoff game.^[90]

NBA career statistics[link]

Correct as of end of the 2011-12 regular season^[25]

Regular season[link]

Playoffs[link]

Awards and honors[link]

• 1× NBA Champion: 2008
• 3× NBA All-Star: 2010, 2011, 2012 ^[91]
• 1× All-NBA Team:

• Third Team: 2012

• 4× NBA All-Defensive:

• First Team: 2010, 2011
• Second Team: 2009, 2012

• NBA All-Rookie selection:

• Second team: 2007

• NBA regular season leader:

• 2010: most steals (189), most steals per game (2.3)
• 2012: most assists per game (11.4), most triple-doubles (6)

• NBA postseason leader:

• 2008: most assists (172), most steals (45)
• 2009: most assists (127), most triple-doubles (3)
• 2010: most triple-doubles (2), most steals (46)
• 2011: most triple-doubles (1)
• 2012*: most assists (165), most assists per game (11.8), most triple-doubles (3)

*active series

• Boston Celtics franchise records:

• Most assists in a single season: 794 (2009–10)
• Most steals in a single season: 189 (2009–10)
• Most assists in a playoff game: 20 (2010–11)
• Most assists per game (season): 11.7 (2011-12)
• Most consecutive games with 10+ assists (regular season): 24* (2011-12)

*active streak

See also[link]

• List of National Basketball Association career playoff assists leaders
• List of National Basketball Association players with most assists in a game

Footnotes[link]