John Stockton is one of the greatest players in NBA history and formed one part of basketball’s most famous duos alongside Karl Malone for the Utah Jazz. He was considered the toughest player in the league during his tenure and remains the all-time leader in assists as well as steals.
Stockton was known for taking care of the ball, for someone that handled the ball as much as he did, he only averaged 2.8 turnovers per game for his entire career, an impressive number. This was something that other stars in the league also noticed, with NBA great Charles Barkley once describing him as the perfect point guard to NBA.com (via Desert News).
“John Stockton is the perfect point guard. There has never been a pure point guard who made better basketball decisions with the ball — ever.”
Barkley wasn’t always Stockton’s biggest fan, and he did also once reveal that he tried to hurt John Stockton on the court. Barkley went as far as to say that he wanted to break his ribs or separate his shoulder. However, that was a heat-of-the-moment feeling for the former Phoenix Suns star, and he had much warmer feelings towards Stockton after a while.
Stockton was named as an NBA All-Star on 10 occasions while also making it to 11 All-NBA teams. His battles with Michael Jordan in the NBA finals two years in a row alongside Karl Malone were the stuff of legends, even though they never managed to bring a championship to the Utah Jazz franchise.
There have been several point guards since Stockton retired that have performed at an elite level and tried to emulate Stockton’s quality and longevity but none of them have come close to reaching his tallies for either assists or steals. The likes of Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Chris Paul all have a case for being the perfect point guard but when it comes to certain statistics, none of them are likely to overtake Stockton.
