With 19 NBA seasons and over 1,500 regular-season games under his belt, John Stockton played through and witnessed nearly two decades of superstars and rivalries. Alongside Karl Malone, Stockton helped pilot the Utah Jazz back to relevancy, even leading them to the NBA Finals twice in 1997 and 1998.
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Like so many other great players of that era, Stockton wasn’t able to overcome Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who remained the final frontier. But he still managed to put together a memorable Hall of Fame career.
Along with being the league’s most prolific playmaker, Stockton was also an underrated pest on the defensive end. Despite often being undersized for his matchup at just 6-foot-1, Stockton proved to be an effective defender, even if he didn’t look the part.
Stockton was a premier ball thief throughout his career, retiring with a career steals average of 2.2 per game. He led the entire association in swipes in both 1989-90 and 1991-92 and still boasts the all-time lead by over 500 steals. Stockton set a defensive record that will be tough to break, but that doesn’t mean he could contain every offensive player he faced.
The Jazz legend revisited his career during a 2018 appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, where he shared which players were the toughest to guard. “Rookies were tough to guard as a general rule,” Stockton said before moving on to specific names.
“But guys out west, guys that we played every night. I mentioned Kevin Johnson, Tim Harvey, later on, Gary Payton,” he continued. “Back East, Isiah Thomas, Mark Price, they’re just a lot of great players and great challenges, but Magic Johnson again, because the size we usually guarded him with Bobby Hansen, our two guard. And I’d guard someone else, whoever was smaller at the time.”
No playbook for a rookie
Patrick was interested in what made rookies so hard to guard, though. The longtime sports broadcaster guessed it was because teams don’t have a playbook on a player they haven’t played before. Stockton confirmed that, and pointed out another factor favoring rookies. While NBA teams might not know about college prospects, incoming talents know all about the legends they’ll be facing.
“Yeah, they’ve seen you a lot. Typically, a lot of those guys coming out have usually seen all the NBA guys a lot so they kinda know you,” Stockton continued. “They’re out there ready to go and kind of have a little chip on their shoulder, have something to prove and they’re pretty good. So it was always a challenge when you saw the new guys coming around.”
Stockton saw many big names come and go. But he only glimpsed some of these stars towards the end. New talent like Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Steve Nash emerged when he was about to retire. They became the NBA’s next superstar guards.
Without a scouting report, it was no surprise. These future Hall of Famers challenged veterans. They burst onto the scene. Stockton usually contained opponents he knew. But guarding an incoming rookie was different. The 10-time All-Star was clueless. He was like any other player.
