How Good Was John Stockton Actually?

for the basketball purists john stockton was the best point guard in nba history and their main argument is stockton's two unbeatable nba records a number of career assists and steals here's the story of a guy that looked like an accountant and how he trained his mind and body to become like a computer on the court and one of the toughest players ever at six foot one this is the career retrospective of jon stockton how good was he actually and how would he fare in today's nba early life and getting to the nba john stockton has been underrated all his life he was a small skinny kid who never should have dominated on the basketball court and yet outworked everybody and soon became better than guys much bigger and more athletic than him in addition to basketball he played baseball and football as a kid and had an opportunity to become a great quarterback still his genius on the basketball court and an average of 23 points per game in the senior year of high school led to several colleges offering him a scholarship stockton graduated from gonzaga prep in 1980 and opted to stay home in spokane washington and join gonzaga university gonzaga has a famous basketball program now but for a long time they were known just for john stockton stockton did not have a free summer throughout his career and every year his ritual was the same during july he trained for two hours a day in august it went to five hours every day when his college friends were going out and drinking he spent his days shooting in the gym when they asked him why he doesn't relax a little stockton replied that he only had a small chance to play in the nba and that he wanted to be completely ready if that opportunity arose john averaged 20.9 points and 7.2 assists as a senior and became the first player in gonzaga history to register 1 000 points and 500 assists stockton was then drafted in the 1984 nba draft arguably the strongest draft in nba history olajuwon was the first pick jordan was third and barkley went fifth stockton was selected 16th overall by the jazz and the following year the jazz drafted carl malone during their years together stockton and malone would become the deadliest guard forward pairing in the nba nba career one big constant when stockton first came to utah after the draft he immediately asked the jazz coaching staff to give him all available vhs tapes of jazz games from last season he studied their plays all summer and when the training camp started jon knew every offensive and defensive set how everybody moved and where his teammates like to get the ball this was 1984 and the habit of watching tape was basically non-existent but stockton was different during my entire rookie season i expected to be cut and that's why i came so prepared there was no relaxation for me i think i was the player who spent the least money in one season ever i rented the cheapest possible apartment i didn't buy anything in it i didn't even turn on the heating stockton recalled jokingly stockton came off the bench in his first three seasons averaging seven points seven assists and just two turnovers in 21 minutes per game he didn't do anything flashy on the court there were no behind the back passes or crazy crossovers everything he did was fundamentally sound and his highlights were often just simple bounce passes with perfect timing when he became a starter for the 1987-88 season jon immediately led the league in assists with 13.8 and just three turnovers he averaged 15 points a game but he took less than 10 shots with 57 shooting from the field from 1988 until 1996 one man led the league in assists each year and that was stockton breaking bob cousy's record for leading the league in assists with nine consecutive years out of 10 best marks for most assists in a season seven belong to stockton and these are just some of his passing records stockton was also the only point guard in the league setting picks on much bigger players absorbing the blows with his six foot one body to free up teammates charles barkley once said that stockton sets the hardest picks in the league and when barkley says that it means something yeah stockton was dirty and he took every little chance to trip you elbow you and gain some kind of advantage but because he was always outmatched physically he almost had to be dirty to succeed the jazz made the playoffs 19 years in a row and both stockton and malone don't know what it's like to miss the postseason during their tenure the jazz was a top three seed in eight seasons and their 64 wins in 1997 are still the franchise record coach jerry sloane wanted perfection and he coached the jazz with an army-like mentality which suited his two all-stars and carl and john there was no load management though playing less than 100 percent they played the regular season like it's the playoffs and jon stockton never allowed his troops to slack off during those 19 years jon didn't change a single thing his neatly combed short hair was always the same he trained rigorously and he was the only player who kept playing in those ultra short 80s shorts a decade after everybody switched to longer ones stockton became the nba's all-time assists leader in 1995 surpassing magic johnson's 9921 dives when he broke magic's record stockton didn't want the game to stop to be honored the fans gave him a standing ovation and he waved his hand briefly so that the game could continue the following season stockton also surpassed mari's cheeks as the all-time record holder in steels in 1997 and 1998 utah played the best basketball in the west won the number one seed each year and went to the nba finals when he made the buzzer-beating three-pointer against barkley and olajuwon in the 97 playoffs for a series win and a place in their first finals it was the only time where we have ever seen him lose his cool and show a lot of emotions on the court and then in the finals a lack of experience lack of luck and michael jordan declined the jazz in stockton the privilege to win a ring but those series were much closer than people think almost every game was decided in the final minute and phil jackson always said that the two finals against utah or the hardest of the bull's six titles from 1998 when he was 35 in 2003 the final year of his career at the age of 40 stockton still averaged 50 shooting he still played hard on defense and delivered crisp passes at the perfect place and the perfect time but he never looked at his stats and was never interested in the personal accolades all that mattered to him is for his team to win after his final nba game a playoff loss in sacramento in 2003 stockton was asked to summarize his feelings about retiring without an nba title a lot of this is about the journey he said we worked very hard and haven't done it and yet i feel a lot of reward out of the effort that it took to compete the uniqueness of john stockton stockton saw everything on the floor three steps ahead his combination of passing precision peace control endurance and tough defense were unmatched in the nba he was the maestro of the pick-and-roll when pick-and-roll was a novelty and his one-two combination with malone was one of the surest bets in the league for a decade stockton was hard as nails and you could see that in the physicality of his play and how hard he would throw his body on drives trying to force contact and create separation defensively he was a nightmare for the opposing guards an annoying pest who didn't mind diving for the ball making hard fouls and doing everything in his power to stop you people are often praising lebron and durant for being so dominant and efficient at an advanced age but these guys are freaks of nature stockton shot 51.5 from the floor in his career weighing 170 pounds and in retrospect he should have probably taken a lot more shots himself if he played in today's pace in space era jon could have easily cast several threes per game and he was one of the first players to shoot pull-up threes in half court and semi-transition out of his physical attributes he had only two advantages enormous et like hands and fingers which helped him control the ball and throw passes with one hand and the second was a resting heart rate of 35 beats per minute twice less than the average man of his size it was part of the reason why he was always composed and why he could play with the same intensity at the end of the game and why he'd almost never sweat stockton always flew under the radar similar to tim duncan and moses malone one of the most underrated centers ever that's how jon preferred it for 19 years in the league he never had an agent and he negotiated all of his contracts managers pr personal assistants a 10-person entourage forget it this was not stocked in style and he was kawhi leonard before kawhi leonard he just played as hard as he could and after the game he was the same old john a nice respectable guy who gave boring answers to the media so he could be left alone and go home to his family when asked about his favorite moment from his stay with the dream team in barcelona stockton replied one girl on the street asked me to take a picture of her with charles barkley she thought i was some tourist legacy john stockton is an example that hard work pays off this small skinny white guy missed just 22 games in a 19-year career 18 of which in one season due to a knee injury which is also the only serious injury of his career he is without a doubt the best pure point guard ever john is number one all time in career assists that's not even close with jason kidd in second place with almost 4 000 assists behind him the same as in steels where stockton is the only man with over 3 000 steals with 550 more than kidd at number two with 10.5 assists per game he's one of only two players to average double figure assist for their career he once had 11 assists in one quarter and that was in a playoff game stockton's other assist records include most in a season 1164 the highest average for a season 14.5 and most seasons leading the league in passing he also shared the record for most assists in a playoff game with 24 and is tied for third for most assists in a regular season game with 28. if he played in the point guard era of today he could have easily averaged 20 every year because of his phenomenal shooting ability but all he wanted was to create perfect shots for his teammates i swear that i never got a bad pass from stockton he never threw the ball behind my back in my legs in front of me every pass was right in my hands and i just needed to shoot jeff hornisha stockton's assists were never for the crowd to go wild they were above all purposeful no one knew how to throw a better bounce pass than stockton and the only time he made a flashing move was when it was the only way for his teammate to catch the ball i often took him for granted because i knew i would get ideal passes from him every game he always made me better no one gave him anything he earned everything himself carl malone gary payton a hall of famer and one of the best defensive players ever said that stockton was the hardest player for him to guard and not michael jordan [Music]

Channel: Nonstop Sports

Views: 341,698

Keywords: NBA, NBA history, john stockton, pass, assist, nonstop sports

Id: zFpS-6Uo_so

Length: 10min 17sec (617 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 18 2021