In 1985, Jones was signed by the
Adelaide 36ers in Australia's National Basketball League where he played as an import player (from 1979 to 2015, NBL teams, with the exception of the
New Zealand Breakers, were restricted to no more than 2 non-Australian players at a time). Quickly becoming the starting centre for the team (and easily its tallest player), Jones formed part of the league's best front court with former
St. Augustine's Falcons Power forward,
Mark Davis. Along with other stars including guards
Al Green (a naturalised Australian born in
The Bronx) and
Darryl Pearce,
1980 Australian Olympics representative Peter Ali (the team captain), and the
NBL's 1985 Rookie of the Year Mike McKay, the Ken Cole coached team made it through to the single game
NBL Grand Final that year, but went down 121–95 to the
Brisbane Bullets. During the year Jones averaged 13.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 28 games. For 1986, Ken Cole made Jones the captain of the 36ers. In 1985 Jones had fouled out in a number of games and Cole's motivation behind making him the captain was that hopefully he would cut the cheap fouls out of his game. The ploy worked and Jones went on to have his best season in Australia, averaging 19.1 points, 13.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game over 30 games, shooting an NBL career high 31 points in the final regular season game against the
Melbourne Tigers. The 36ers themselves enjoyed a golden year with the team going through the season with a 24–2 record, including going 13–0 on their home court, the 3,000 seat
Apollo Stadium, earning them the nickname "The Invincibles". The two losses for the 36ers literally came from last second shots meaning that they were only seconds away from a perfect season, while against Geelong late in the season Jones saved Adelaide from a home loss when in the last second of the game he tip-dunked a missed 3 point attempt from Darryl Pearce to give Adelaide a 120–119 win. Going into the
playoffs, the 36ers were overwhelming favourites to win their maiden championship having finished 5 games clear of the second placed
Canberra Cannons. The team easily overcame the
Illawarra Hawks 116–92 in their single game home Semi-final before again facing the Brisbane Bullets (who had come from behind to beat Canberra in their semi-final clash) in the now best of 3 game Grand Final series. In the opening game at the
Brisbane Entertainment Centre in front of a then record indoor sports attendance in Australia of 11,000 fans, Jones led from the front for the 36ers with 30 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks as the 36ers won 122–119 in overtime (eventual
series MVP Mark Davis had 38 pts, 23 boards and 5 assists). In a pivotal moment late in regulation time, Jones had pulled off the play of the game for his team when he stepped in front of Bullet's kingpin
Leroy Loggins (the
1986 league MVP) and took a charge for what was Loggins' 5th foul (in the NBL at the time players were only allowed 5 fouls). A week later back in Adelaide where the 36ers had been the first team to go through a regular season undefeated at home, the 36ers were expected to wrap up the series, but were stunned by the Bullets who refused to go quietly and pulled off a 104–89 win. Jones and the 36ers would not be denied though, winning Game 3 and the series 113–91 at home. Over the series, Jones averaged 19.6 points, 15.6 rebounds and 3 blocks per game. During his time with the 36ers (which at the time was a semi-professional league with most players still having day jobs), Jones and Mark Davis worked as security at the
Adelaide Casino, with Davis later joking that because of their height, their uniforms were too short making them look like
Urkel, but that they had very little trouble from casino patrons as they "towered over everybody back then". While in Adelaide, Jones also formed a close bond with the 'Brothers' (as they called themselves) in the 36ers squad. The Brothers being African-American players Jones, Davis and naturalised Australian's Al Green and
Dwayne Nelson. With Ken Cole having been controversially sacked at the end of 1986, Adelaide had a new coach in Gary Fox. Although the team (which was largely intact from 1986) still finished 2nd on the ladder and were still the title favourites in
1987. However, they were upset 2–1 in their semi-final series against the
Perth Wildcats and failed to make their 3rd straight
Grand Final.
1988 would be more of the same for the 36ers, but Jones wouldn't be the team captain as Fox had taken that from him and given it to Darryl Pearce and
Peter Ali. They again finished on top of the ladder at the end of the regular season but again faltered in the semi-finals, this time being swept by the eventual champion Canberra Cannons. 1988 had seen the emergence of centre
Mark Bradtke with the 36ers and at the end of the season coach Fox told the then 30 year old Jones that he would not be required in
1989. Jones then linked with former coach Ken Cole at the
Newcastle Falcons for the year, playing 24 games for the club. When Cole left the Falcons at the end of 1989, Jones left as well and played for two years in
Central and
South America before returning to Australia in 1992 where he played 2 games for the
Geelong Supercats in the NBL as well as playing for the Bayside Blues in
Melbourne as well as the Gippsland Lakers before retiring from playing in 1994. Bill Jones played 139 NBL games from 1985 to 1992, averaging 16.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots per game. Although at only 6'9" he wasn't the tallest centre (many centre opponents in the NBL were around 1-3 inches taller), Jones' jumping ability and wingspan made him a noted shot blocker. ==Current==