John Stockton was a No. 16 pick who worked his way into my
top 40 – yet his ranking still seems low.
He checks off a ton of boxes. He played at a high level forever.
He was a 10-time All-Star. His teams made the playoffs all 19 of his seasons.
He has tons of black ink on his bio – he led the league in assists nine times
and steals twice. He was a five-time all-defensive selection. His PER was
pretty good. He was above 21.0 in PER every year from 1987-1988 through his
last. His win shares were outstanding. He was above 10.0 in win shares in 13 of
his 19 years.
What held him from being a top 25 player is a that he never
was a champion or got a lot of love from the MVP voters.
For years, Stockton and Karl Malone powered the Utah Jazz to
the upper echelon of the NBA, but their Utah Jazz were perennial disappointments
in the playoffs, robbing Stockton of valuable playoff winning percentage points.
It wasn’t until Jeff Hornacek joined Utah in 1993-1994 that they had a true
third option. With Hornacek, the Jazz would make the Western Conference Finals
in 1995-1996 and the NBA Finals in 1996-1997 and 1997-1998. The two years the
Jazz made the Finals were the two best for Stockton in my system.
Also, MVP voters took his greatness for granted. Stockton
received MVP votes in 12 seasons, but the most he received was 47 out of 1,050
total in 1994-1995. He was always seen as Robin to Malone’s Batman and that
kept him from having more than just one season above 300 in my system.
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John
Stocton bio info
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Career
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1984-2003
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Games
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1,504
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Points
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13.1
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Rebounds
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2.7
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Assists
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10.5
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FG Pct.
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51.5%
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All-Star games
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10
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NBA MVPs
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0
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NBA Titles
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0
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Playoff seasons
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19
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Playoff games
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182
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Points
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13.4
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Rebounds
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3.3
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Assists
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10.1
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FG Pct.
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47.3%
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Hall of Fame
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2009
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Top 100
rankings
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Points
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Top 100 ranking
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1-year
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304.57
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80th
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5-year
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1,394.32
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61st
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10-year
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2,677.20
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33rd
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Career
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4,546.79
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11th
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John Stockton
at his peak
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1996-1997
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Stockton
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Top 5
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Points
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PER
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22.1
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26.45
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Win Shares
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13.6
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15.26
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Box +/-
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3.9
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7.49
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VORP
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4.3
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7.30
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Total Advanced Stats
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43.9
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56.52
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77.68
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Playoff PER
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22.7
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27.30
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Win Shares
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3.1
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2.90
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Box +/-
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6.8
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9.05
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VORP
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1.6
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1.64
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Total Advanced Stats
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34.2
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40.89
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83.65
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Reg. Season Win %
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78.05
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78.05
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Playoff Win %
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65.00
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65.00
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MVP Voting (75 points)
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3/1,150
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0.20
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Playoff MVP (25 points)
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0
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0
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Total Score
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304.57
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Stockton’s 10 greatest seasons
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1996-1997
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304.57
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1997-1998
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283.21
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1991-1992
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273.49
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1987-1988
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266.83
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1990-1991
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266.22
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1994-1995
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264.09
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1993-1994
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261.30
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2000-2001
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255.26
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1995-1996
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254.36
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1998-1999
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247.88
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Career
winning percentage
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W
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L
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Pct.
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Regular Season
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953
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561
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62.95%
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Playoffs
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90
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92
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49.45%
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This is your biggest miss, Alex. ... Not a huge John Stockton fan, but he was great, far more clutch than Karl Malone.
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