John Stockton retires after 19 years (1 Viewer)

[ThomasC]

:frowning: Sad to see him go, especially since he doesn't have a championship ring. It's amazing that he started playing in the NBA when I was less than a year old. Will Sloan and Malone be far behind?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/908604.asp

 

[Michael Silla]

Your post sounds like the 10 O'clock news sound bite

Seriously though, it is time. He has done the fans of Utah proud, championship or not.

Michael.

 

[Reginald Trent]

I'm sure Malone will leave for a team for the chance to win a championship ring.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

How do you guys rank him with the PGs of all time?

Probably not many of us have seen Oscar Robertson play, but from what I know about him, I'd put him and Magic Johnson ahead of Stockton, and Isiah Thomas following Stockton.

 

[dave_brogli]

Stocktons the shit! My fav Utah player. Definetly top 5 of all time (PG's)

 

[Patrick Sun]

A great player who performed very well at a high level over the course of a long career. He shattered the steals record and the assists record. It'll be a while before anyone contends for those records.

ESPN showed some stats for Stockton, and one that stands out is that he played in all of his team's games in 17 of the seasons he played for the Jazz. Now that's durability (and also a record for such).

Now who knows what numbers Stockton would piled up is he didn't have Malone with him all those years, but it's been a mutually beneficial relationship for both 1st ballot HOFers (in my mind). If there was one other high caliber player playing with Stockton and Malone in their prime years, I really do think they could have won a ring or two. Magic had Kareem and Worthy. Bird had McHale and Parrish. Jordan had Pippen and Grant/Paxton/etc.

As a pick-up game player in my youth, I patterned my game after Stockton's because he showed that with just a bit of athletic ability and plenty of hustle and court awareness for getting the passes into players in scoring position, you could make a difference on your team. He was tenacious in his defense, and always looking for the quick score to involve all of his teammated on the court.

He's easily in the top 5 for pure point guards in NBA history.

 

[Brian Perry]

His Assists record is Chamberlain-esque or Gretzky-esque...it's 50% higher than the second best!