Welcome to LWOS Basketball department “NBA Time Traveler Series,” the column that imagines which retired player from an NBA franchise one would most want to travel back in time to see them play again in their prime. The LWOS Basketball department will review each of the 30 NBA franchises and which retired player would be their “NBA Time Traveler Player.”
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TIME TRAVEL TO SEE JOHN STOCKTON PLAY FOR THE UTAH JAZZ AGAIN
John Stockton played 19 incredible seasons in the NBA as the point guard for the Utah Jazz. At just 6-1 with limited strength and athleticism, Stockton’s success came almost entirely from finesse. His ball handling was a thing of beauty, but Stockton’s best skill was definitely his ability to spread the rock to his teammates. He always put his teammates in a great position to score, and he did so with such style and flare, as evident by his NBA record 15,806 career assists. For undersized point guards who lack elite athleticism and jumping ability (like me), Stockton was a true pleasure to watch and definitely someone any point guard should try to emulate their game after. In the modern NBA, many elite point guards like Russell Westbrook, John Wall, and even pre-injury Derrick Rose rely on their speed, strength, and leaping ability to dominate games. Stockton was quite the opposite, and in many ways, he can be considered one of the best, if not the best, “true” NBA point guards.
Stockton has a bit of Cal Ripken to his legacy, as he missed just 22 games in his entire career, playing in 1,504 of the 1,526 possible regular season games. From 1987 to 1996, he averaged a double-double every single season. Stockton wasn’t the type of player to put up 30+ scoring nights on a daily basis; keep in mind his career scoring average was just 13.1 per game. However, Stockton was the type of player who would dish out double digit assists every game like nobody’s business. In fact, there were 38 different occasions throughout his career in which he tallied 20 or more assists in a game. Jeez, that’s a lot of assists. Stockton’s best statistical season came in 1989-90, when he averaged 17.2 points, 14.5 assists, and 2.7 steals per game on 51% shooting from the field, 42% from beyond the arc, and 82% from the free throw strike.
As a hard-nosed, tough defender, Stockton didn’t slack off when he wasn’t running the ship on offense. Actually, he did quite the contrary, finishing his career with 3,256 steals, another mark that has gone down in the record books as the most ever for an NBA player. An underrated aspect of Stockton’s game was his tendency to be a dirty player. He always reached in for the extra steal or took a jab at an opponent while going for a loose ball. At just 6-1 and 175 pounds, Stockton’s tenacity and fearlessness made him such a respectable athlete.
Along with Karl Malone, John Stockton and the 90’s Jazz teams were very successful, yet they never won a championship. Of course, in 1997 and 1998 the Jazz infamously lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls en route to their fifth and sixth championships, respectively. Even though Stockton never won a ring, he made the playoffs in every single year of his long career, which is wildly impressive.
With swift passing skills, superhero-like durability, and lots of winning, John Stockton has gone down as one of the best point guards of all time. Watching him play the game of basketball one last time would be a true pleasure, an opportunity I certainly wouldn’t want to miss out on.
