Discover

'John Houston Stockton' (born March 26, 1962) is a retired American professional basketball player who spent his entire career (1984–2003) as a point guard for the Utah Jazz of the NBA. Stockton is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, holding the NBA records for career assists and steals by considerable margins.

Contents

Early years

NBA career

Player profile

Footnotes

External links

Early years

Stockton was born in Spokane, Washington to Clementine Frei and Jack Stockton.^[1] He attended high school at Gonzaga Prep, graduating in 1980. He then played college basketball for Gonzaga University in his hometown where he averaged 20.9 points per game while shooting 57% from the field his senior year.

NBA career

Standing 6'1", Stockton is considered to be one of the NBA's greatest point guards. He averaged a career double-double, with 13.1 points and 10.5 assists per game. He holds the NBA's records for career assists (15,806) by a relatively large margin and career steals (3,265). He had five of the top six assists seasons in NBA history (the other belonging to Isiah Thomas). He holds the NBA record for the most seasons and consecutive games played with one team, and is third in total games played, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. He missed only 22 games during his career, 18 of them in one season. As a point of comparison, he played in 34 games where he tallied 20 or more assists.
Stockton appeared in 10 All-Star games, and was named co-MVP of the game in 1993 with Jazz teammate Karl Malone, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. He played with the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic basketball teams, known as Dream Team (basketball) I and II, the first Olympic squads to feature NBA players, keeping the game ball from both Gold Medal games. He was selected to the All-NBA First Team twice, the All-NBA Second Team six times, the All-NBA Third Team three times, and the NBA All-Defensive Second Team five times. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996. Stockton's career highlight came in Game 6 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals, in which he hit the winning 3-point shot over the Houston Rockets' Charles Barkley to send the Jazz to the first of its two consecutive NBA Finals appearances.
For many years, he and Malone were the Jazz's 1-2 punch. The two played a record 1,412 regular-season games together as teammates. Many of Stockton's assists resulted from passes to Malone.
Stockton earned the "old school" tag for his physical play (surveys of athletes and fans alike often judged him among the toughest players in the NBA, usually just behind teammate Karl Malone); his uniform "short shorts" (he was the most recent notable NBA player to wear them, preferring the style long after the rest of the league had adopted today's baggy look); his conservative dress off the court, which contrasted with many of his NBA contemporaries; and his reserved demeanor.
On May 2, 2003, Stockton announced his retirement with a released statement instead of the customary news conference. The Jazz later held a retirement ceremony for him, in which Salt Lake City renamed the street in front of the Energy Solutions Arena, where the Jazz play, "John Stockton Drive." His number-12 jersey was retired by the Jazz during a game on November 22, 2004. A statue of Stockton can be seen in front of the Energy Solutions Arena; an accompanying statue of Karl Malone was placed nearby on March 23, 2006. The Malone and Stockton statues stand on a bronze plaque commemorating their achievements together.
Stockton and his wife, the former Nada Stepovich (daughter of Michael Anthony Stepovich, the penultimate territorial governor of Alaska), have two daughters, Lindsay and Laura, and four sons, Houston, Michael, David and Samuel. They live in Spokane next door to his parents.

Player profile

Stockton, a 10-time NBA All-Star commandingly holds the NBA record for career assists with 15,806 (10.5 per game), and had 5,483 more career assists than Mark Jackson, who is second all-time. To put this tremendous margin in context, only 33 (including Stockton and Jackson) players in NBA history have recorded more than 5,483 assists in their entire ''careers''. Stockton also holds the record for assists-per-game average over one season (14.5 in 1990), and is one of three players who have logged more than 1,000 assists in one season, joining Kevin Porter (1,099 in 1979) and Isiah Thomas (1,123 in 1985) in the exclusive list. Stockton did this seven times, with season totals of 1164, 1134, 1128, 1126, 1118, 1031 and 1011 assists [1].

He and Karl Malone are regarded as the quintessential pick and roll duo. Apart from his passing skill, Stockton was also known for being a capable scorer (13.1 points per game career average, with a high .515 shooting percentage) with a reliable three-point shot (.384 lifetime average). He is 30th on the all-time NBA scoring list with 19,711 career points[2]. Despite the fact that he never pulled down more than 9 rebounds (or recorded more than 9 steals) during a regular season ''game'', he recorded one career triple double, in a playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks.
On defense, Stockton holds the NBA record for career steals with 3,265, nearly 30 percent more than second placed Michael Jordan, who had 2,514[3]. Similar to his career-long partner Malone, Stockton was considered a "dirty" defender by some, but he was certainly effective, earning five NBA All-Defensive Second Team nominations.
To put Stockton's statistical dominance in perspective, there are only four other players in NBA history who have logged more than ''half'' of Stockton's career totals in both assists and steals: Magic Johnson, Gary Payton, Isiah Thomas and Jason Kidd. There is no player in league history who has more than 60% of Stockton's career totals in both of these categories.
Stockton was known for his unassuming, no-nonsense approach to the game, hard-nosed defense, and fanatical work-ethic in preparation, which resulted in his extreme durability. He played 1,504 of 1,526 possible games in his 19-season career. In his first 13 seasons, he missed only four games until he missed the first 18 games of the 1997-98 season due to an injured MCL in his left knee sustained in the preseason. That was the only major injury in his career and he never missed another game after returning. In his last season at age 41, he started in all 82 games, and finished with more-than-respectable averages of 10.8 ppg and 7.7 apg.
Stockton avoided endorsements, and stayed loyal to Utah despite being offered significantly more money by other teams. In 1996 he agreed to a deal that made salary-cap space available so the team could improve, but insisted on guaranteed Delta Center ice time for his son's hockey team.^[2]
On May 11, 2006, ESPN.com named Stockton the 4th best point guard of all time.^[3]

Footnotes

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/stockton.htm
2. http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/smith_sam/1548627.html
3. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-GreatestPointGuards

External links

★ NBA History

★ NBA.com Profile

★ BasketballReference.com: John Stockton

★ John Stockton