player who spent his entire career as a point guard
for the Utah Jazz
of the NBA
from 1984 to 2003
. Stockton is regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, holding the NBA records for most career assists
and steals
by considerable margins. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Stockton was born in Spokane, Washington
to Clementine Frei and Jack Stockton and had Irish
and Swiss German
ancestry.
I don’t think I could count them on one hand. A couple that stick right out, which I enjoyed the battles, were Kevin Johnson, Mark Price, Gary Payton. There’s a number of others, I never really had the opportunity to match up against Magic Johnson because he was too big and I always guarded Byron Scott but I still admired him.
I imagine I’ll do my fair share of coaching but it might be soccer, volleyball, football at a kid’s level. I never burn bridges and I never say never but to me that sounds a lot more exciting than just about anything else.
I like Jason Kidd, I like the way he competes. People have criticisms of his game but one thing the guy does is he competes and he lays it all out here an I respect that.
I try to block out most things – it’s emotional and I really don’t like to go there a whole lot. All those people there, I try not to pay a whole lot of attention. We had the fog come in as I walked in and I tried to be careful not to hit something or trip and that took my mind off of everything, it was a nice diversion.
It’s the best game in world, that’s part of the fun playing with Jerry (Sloan) – he recognizes that and protects it. Some people don’t understand that protection but he will fight for this game. I’d say it’s something I’ve loved since I was a kid.
No, you don’t know the agony it took to get to that point. Once I reached that point I was sure, even if it didn’t come out very well.