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In cruel irony Stockton was a very selfish player. He'd commonly eschew the gimme shot in order to shovel it off in hopes of goosing his assist count. Must have been maddening to any fan of the Jazz that had an ounce of common sense.
Stockton’s legacy: Small in stature, big in heart
By Fran Blinebury
If Michael Jordan was Pegasus, the winged stallion galloping across the sky, then John Stockton was the sturdy plow horse who relished putting on the yoke each morning for another trip through the fields.
If Jordan’s brilliance was impulsive and rule-breaking like the artistry of Salvador Dali, then Stockton’s was as relentless and single-minded as the stone masons who constructed the great pyramids.
For nearly two decades they were the yin and the yang of the NBA, each one the counterweight to the other. While Jordan soared over the game, Stockton bored right through it like a diamond-tipped drill bit.
It is then quite fitting that the pair should be inducted into the Hall of Fame together, Class of 2009. But with so much attention focused on the highlight-reel career of Jordan, it is easy to overlook the down-to-earth exploits of Stockton. And quite foolish.
The sheer numbers are mind-bending. Stockton is on top of the NBA career list for assists with 15,806, and that’s more than 5,000 ahead of the No. 2 man, Mark Jackson. He’s also the league’s all-time leader in steals with 3,265, and that is ahead of the runner-up – Jordan – by more than 700.
Stockton owns five of the top six assist seasons in NBA history, holds the record for most seasons and most consecutive games played for one team and he’s third behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish in total games played.
In 19 grueling NBA regular-season marathons, he missed only 22 of 1,526 games, 18 of those in a single year when doctors told him he needed knee surgery, but Stockton chose merely to sit out a few weeks and returned to finish out the schedule.
“He worked harder than you,” said Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “That was his secret.
“He’s one of the most unique players you’ll ever run across. You can talk about all the things he tried to do. But first of all, you’ve got to look at his stature. He’s not a very big guy. And yet he played as strong and tough as anybody could.”
The son of a Spokane, Wash., saloon keeper chipped the flinty edge to his game on the rough-and-tumble driveway of the family home against older brother Steve and friends, who showed no mercy on the elementary school kid, the smallest player on the court.
Stockton was only 5-5 as a ninth grader at Gonzaga Prep when he’d phone his freshman coach, Ed Smith, on Sundays after church.
“He’d say, ‘Open the gym and bring your fat friends,’ ” Smith told the Spokane Spokesman-Review. “He’d play his butt off and get mad if he got beat by a 25-year-old man.”
Brick walls are stubborn and unforgiving, just slightly less hard and unbending as Stockton. While Jordan changed even the style of the game, ushering in the era of the long and baggy shorts, Stockton’s sartorial simplicity showed off his legs at mid-thigh from his rookie year to his final season. As Jordan progressed from curly-haired youngster to shining bald marketing icon, the guy-next-door Stockton wore the same hairstyle from junior high. Did he even get his hair cut? Did it ever grow?
In the hip-hop world of the 21st-century NBA, he was a throwback as quaint as bobby sox and penny loafers.
All the while and all the games and all the seasons, he and Karl Malone lived and thrived on the most basic play in the game, the pick-and-roll, and they did it again and again and again because it worked. Nothing fancy. No need to change.
While Jordan seemed to always challenge the rules of physics each time he stepped onto – and floated above – the court, Stockton was all about the geometry. He saw every angle for every pass and every play that constantly unfolded in his mind’s eye ahead of everyone else.
“I try to take what the defense gives me and never think ahead that I’m going to try to get this or that,” he said. “I just do what I have to do. I try to keep it simple.”
When somebody once asked him why he never dunked the basketball, even in an open-court, breakaway situation, Stockton merely looked back with those piercing eyes, shook his head and grinned. If you had to ask, you couldn’t understand.
“There absolutely, positively will never be another John Stockton,” said Malone.
Black and white. Short and tall. Poetry and prose. For all of their differences, what Stockton brought to the game was as singular as Jordan’s bag of tricks. The raw talent was never as important as the raw determination.
Jordan used to wear teammates out, and literally beat them up on the practice court. Sloan’s favorite memory of Stockton also is in practice.
“He was beaten one time in 19 years running laterals, suicide drills, across the floor,” Sloan recalled. “That’s after he was 40-some years old. It wasn’t about him proving that he was still the best. He just wanted to do everything the best he could to try to help the team, try to win.”
All that was ever required to be Ground Stockton was at ude. Yet he’s the only one and that speaks volumes.
If Michael Jordan was as spectacular and jaw-dropping as a Maui sunset, John Stockton was as relentless as the tides, no less a force of nature.
*********************
Related Video
Stockton's start: John Stockton Raw: Breaking into the NBA
http://sports.yahoo.com/video/player...QMLlr3gLkQmNIF
In cruel irony Stockton was a very selfish player. He'd commonly eschew the gimme shot in order to shovel it off in hopes of goosing his assist count. Must have been maddening to any fan of the Jazz that had an ounce of common sense.
Damn, you don't like giving credit to any non-Laker player, do you?
Pay your respects son
That's always been my take. Stockton was the better PG, but Magic transcended the position.
Please. I'm always sucking Manu's knob, and peeking looks at Perkins knob, AK's knob, Parker's knob, + a few others.
I just don't lock step. It's my religion.
what a sad, pathetic lakerfan
here are some of Stockton's highlights for the knowledgeable folks:
Stockton >>> Nash
tee, hee. My Stockton take always increases my goat herd. Never misses.
so that's your sole purpose in here. how pathetic...
Isn't that the sole purpose of us all, hater? Your fandom provided the charter.
That's because Stockton beat Magic Johnson, a former Laker, to become the all-time assist leader
That's my point, peanut-for-a-brain: Stockton sacrificed the needs of the team for his own selfish agenda (assist totals). We all go to the dirt, he'll go ringless.
Easy for you to laugh, Lefty, you've got 3 regular rings, + that strike 1. But, Stockton, he's bereft & totally so. I betcha he don't laugh.
tee, hee.
Stockton doesn't have a ring because Karl Malone is a choking pussy. Stockton basically iced the championship with 41 seconds left in game 6 of the 98 Finals with his huge three to put Utah up 3, and what does Malone do on the next possession? Doesn't pay any attention to Jordan and falls flat on his ass as Jordan swipes the ball away from him. Then Jordan walks down the floor and wins the game. Season over. Warm Karl blows it again.
Very well put.
And everybody will remember Jordan's shot instead of Malone's gaffe.
so you waste your time trying to get people on here to hate you?
get a life!
unfortunately, i wasn't old enough to watch Stockton play when he was in his prime. can anybody give a brief comparison of (prime) Stockton and Chris Paul? who would you take n your team?
Stockton
Just because he is old school and has a higher BB IQ
He was also more clutch and a better defender (despite CP3's spg numbers)
Stock wasa better ball handler too; don't get me started on CP3 carrying the ball
Stock was a better outside shooter too
Yeah, he got his steals by picking off dribblers, not sagging off his man into the passing lanes ala Paul.
And Stockton was a LOT stronger than Paul is. People don't realize just how cut he was, but John Stockton was one of the most well-conditioned and hardened athletes to have ever graced the NBA court.
I was watching game 6 of the 97 finals the other day and just marveling at a play where Stockton bodied up MJ in the high post and forced him into a bad jumpshot with a hand in his eyes. I re-watched it like 5 times. Paul couldn't pull off that kind of D if his life depended on it.
Last edited by balli; 09-09-2009 at 01:56 PM.
Despite him being on the Jazz, Stockton was one of the players that I really liked. The way he ran the offense, and played hard-nosed (sometimes dirty) defense gave the impression that any guy can play the game at a HoF level.
Truth is, Stockton was deceptively quick, has one of the highest bball IQ, and handles the ball like no other.
He's #2 on my PG list, right behind Magic, and in front of Isiah Thomas.
Paul is faster and stronger than Stockton ever was, but Stockton was more skilled, better shooter and better on and off ball IQ.
also, Stockton was a little dirty ala Nash. But not a big time flopper like Paul.
Not even close to as strong. And durability? Paul's missed more games in 4 years than Stockton did in 19.
not talking about durability. Strong and fast goes to CP3. Dude can elevate and make the shot even with a big's body on top of him.
Stockton Always Came Ready to Play
SportingNews
—> —>Suppose you were a player for the John Stockton-Karl Malone Jazz teams of the '90s, and suppose you were feeling a bit of soreness flaring up in your knee just before a game. Not unbearable pain, but enough to give you a limp. And suppose you took that limp into the locker room. Well, there was one quick cure for that hitch in your step-a Stockton stare.
"That was all it took," former Jazz center Mark Eaton said. "A guy would come limping into the locker room and he would get that look from John. All the sudden, the limp would go away. He didn't need to say anything. But you knew the way things were in John's eyes. If you could walk, you could play, and if you could play, you were 100 percent."
Over the course of 19 seasons, durability was one of Stockton's strengths, and he demanded the same from teammates. He suited up for 1,504 out of a possible 1,526 games, only missing time for two stretches of his career. That's one reason he was able to establish an incredible NBA record for career assists, with 15,806-well ahead of Mark Jackson, No. 2 on the list at 10,334. It's also a big part of the reason Stockton will get the call from the Hall of Fame on Friday. He played through sore knees. He played through illness. He even played for the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics despite a stress fracture in his leg.
"I will tell you, there was one year in the early'90s and we were playing Seattle in the playoffs," said Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson. "John had an elbow injury, and he could not lift his right arm. He spent most of the series dribbling with his left hand. He even considered shooting free throws with his left hand, but he did not want to let the Sonics know that he was hurt. He never told the press, never told anyone. After the season, he had surgery on his elbow. No one ever knew. We knew in the locker room only because he didn't want to hurt the team. But he hated for anyone outside to ever know he was hurt."
There was more to Stockton than merely staying on the court and his famed reluctance to let the media know about his injuries (or to let the media know anything else, for that matter). His toughness and work ethic were big parts of his iden y, but they should not overshadow the fact that he was, arguably, the greatest natural playmaker in NBA history and perhaps the best point guard ever to run the pick-and-roll. He led the league in assists nine straight times, from the 1987-88 to the 1995-96 seasons, and put up a record 14.5 assists per game in 1989-90. He holds the NBA career record for steals (3,265), also by a wide margin. And, when needed, he could shoot-Stockton made 51.5 percent from the field in his career, and 38.4 percent from the 3-point line.
"You could say he was the perfect player in the way he handled himself, the way he prepared himself to play," coach Jerry Sloan said. "He is one of the few guys who when you watched him play point guard, from the time he started off as a little guy, he was always facing the basket. He never played with his back to the basket."
Despite his gaudy numbers, Stockton seemed surprised to have been selected for the Hall of Fame. He was, after all, a little-known point guard out of Gonzaga-the first player from Gonzaga to play in the NBA-when he was drafted in 1984 with the No. 16 pick, just after Jay Humphries, Michael Cage and Terence Stansbury. Jazz fans booed heartily at his selection, though it didn't take long for Stockton to change that first impression. In April, when he learned of his impending induction, Stockton said, "Growing up, I never thought about the Hall of Fame," Stockton said. "All I wanted was a chance to go to college."
He got that, of course. And much, much more. Stockton remains the NBA's gold standard for playmakers, and it's hard to imagine someone even nearing his assists record. "When I am asked about John," Johnson said, "I go to what (late Jazz owner) Larry Miller used to say: John Stockton is exactly what you would want him to be."
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