Utah Jazz icon John Stockton and former MVP Charles Barkley were some of the best ever to do it at their respective positions.
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John Stockton was one of the best point guards to ever step on a basketball court. While the 10x All-Star wasn’t really blessed with the best athletic ability, he used his skills to carve out a Hall-Of-Fame career for himself, sitting as the All-Time Assists and Steals leader.
Meanwhile, Charles Barkley is one of the best forwards to ever play in the NBA. The 11x All-Star averaged an impressive 22.1 points and 11.7 rebounds throughout his career. At his peak, Chuck even won an MVP over one Michael Jordan, a feat not many can say they achieved.
Charles Barkley gives credit to John Stockton, a player he once despised.
Despite handling the ball majority of the time, John Stockton averaged only 2.8 turnovers to his name in his career. While this was not noticed by media and fans, a lot of opposing players did take notice of how well the 11x All-NBA ran an offense. Charles Barkley being one of them. He goes on to say –
“John Stockton is the perfect point guard. There has never been a pure point guard who made better basketball decisions with the ball — ever.”
This is high praise coming from Chuck, who publicity hated the Jazz star during his tenure in the NBA. While Barkley may be right, we cannot ignore the likes of Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd: point guards who are absolutely magicians at running an offense.
However, Charles Barkley retracted and corrected his previous statement –
“Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard ever, but he’s a freak of nature. But Isiah Thomas and John Stockton are the two best pure – when I say pure, I mean little guys to play the point guard position. They’re the best to ever do it.”
However, none of them come really close to John Stockton, especially with respect to numbers. The Jazz legend averaged 10.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game in his 19-year career; Such astonishing numbers and records may not be touched for the foreseeable future.
