Few high school players have come out of the Washington with the "can't miss" label as did Anthony Jones, the Parade All-American and D.C. Player of the Year in 1981. Averaging 24 points per game as he led the Crimson Tide to 24 straight victories, he was the first two-time All-Met at Dunbar since Craig Shelton in 1976, and was ranked as high as #4 nationally as a senior.

The subject of a national recruiting battle between Duke, North Carolina, and Georgetown, Jones followed the lead of Patrick Ewing and selected Georgetown over North Carolina--at UNC, Jones would have played alongside fellow high school senior Michael Jordan. The two Georgetown recruits, along with McKinley Tech's Bill Martin, combined for 43 points in the 1981 Capital Classic, and Georgetown recruits was deemed the nation's top recruiting class at season's end.

A valuable sixth man as a freshman, Jones finished fourth on the team in scoring with bright hopes for what lay ahead of him. The 1982-83 Georgetown media game recalled one of his best games as a freshman.

"Jones almost singlehandedly turned around the Hoyas' opening round Big east tournament game versus Providence," it wrote, "scoring 13 points in a two and a half minute span, helping turn an eight point deficit into a...lead the hoyas never relinquished." Jones finished with 19 points, one below his season high of 20 versus Seton Hall.

With expectations of Jones assuming a major role in the scoring column following Eric Floyd's graduation in 1982, few could have predicted a disappointing sophomore season. Jones was averaging in double figures into December when he suffered an elbow injury that kept him out of action a month; when he returned, he lost his touch, and thereafter, his confidence. In his first two games back from the injury, Jones shot a combined 1 for 8, and at one point was 1 for 16 from the free throw line. He started only two games the remainder of the season and while showing signs of his potential, such as a 15 point effort versus Villanova, Jones was relegated to the bench for much of the season. He finished the 1982-83 season averaging 20 minutes per game, shooting 52 percent from the field but just 35 percent from the foul line.

In July 1983, Jones announced he would take a one year leave of absence from school. "I'll just be working for a year, maybe take a class or two, and hope to come back with a clear mind the next year," he told the Washington Post. But with the arrival of Reggie Williams that fall, his prospects by 1984-85 might have been even less promising. At a visit in Las Vegas, coach John Thompson asked UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian if he was interested in Jones.

"John Thompson delivered him to me from Georgetown," Tarkanian said. "John called me one day when he was at the Barbary Coast and I met him. He said, 'You want Anthony?' We only had four McDonald's All-Americans in 19 years, and Jones was one of them. He was a great talent, and he could jump to the moon."

Jones played two seasons with UNLV from 1984 to 1986, scoring 1,098 points and was named the Big West Player of the Year in 1986. In the first year of the three point line (the Big West adopted it a year ahead of the NCAA at large), he shot 44.6 percent from the arc. Despite a career of only two seasons, Jones was ranked #31 in the Las Vegas Review Journal's all-time UNLV players list in 2010.

Following UNLV, Jones played four years in the NBA.