Every year when college basketball is in full effect, #Gonzaga is always in the headlines. Even though Adam Morrison was more my time. I always think to myself “Damn…. Gonzaga... Home of John Stockton.” That's how much this average white guy who I never watched play live, lives in my head rent free.
I recently read that even though Stockton is 3rd in all-time turnovers, he is still 5th all-time in the assist to turnover ratio. Having 15,806 assists is mind boggling. To add a little spicy perspective, you can play an 82-game season for 19 years all while averaging 10 assists for your career AND you would still be 226 short on hitting Stockton’s numbers.
That's because this is basically what Stockton did! He played all 82-games in his first 5 seasons then missed 4 games in his 6th season, only to then play all 82-games the next 7 seasons. He would miss 18 games in his 14th season due to injury and never missed another game for the rest of his career. This man only missed four games in 13 seasons. How is that even possible? All while averaging 10.5 assists per game.
The term unbreakable record gets thrown around a lot in basketball but Stockton's assist total is set in stone. Even with the #Russell Westbrooks and #Lebron James’s floating around the most assists per year category. There is just too much attention put on the other stat lines in todays game that solely focusing on assist is unrealistic.
Stockton never missed the playoffs in his nearly two decades playing for the #Jazz, but despite leading the team to five conference finals appearances and two appearances in the NBA finals (1997, 1998). Stockton did retired in 2003 while neverrrr winning an #NBA championship.
This is one of those cases, where I really don’t think a championship matters. It's just not a testament to his amazingly durable and impressive career. Yet, Stockton is often forgotten about, is he a forgotten star?
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