The Utah Jazz’s golden years in the NBA were during John Stockton and Karl Malone’s stints with the team. The dynamic duo helped the Jazz become one of the best teams in the league, but they couldn’t help them win an NBA title during the primes of their career.
On that note, John Stockton is widely regarded as one of the best point guards to ever play in the league. He spent 19 years in the NBA, and he dished out 15,806 assists in that time period. Just one look at his APG per season during his career is enough to see how amazingly skilled the Jazz legend was.
If that’s not enough, his career-high assists against each NBA franchise seem like video game numbers. But arguably one of the latest talked skills about Stockton was his toughness. Spending the majority of his career in the NBA during the 1980s and 1990s, Stockton was not shy of getting into scuffles with other players.
The above-attached clip is a testament to Stockton’s numerous fights over the years. Although he had the ability to give a beating to someone when required, there were times when he would be on the receiving ends of those blows as well.
Mark Bryant Face Stomped John Stockton During The 1991 NBA Playoffs
By the 1990-91 NBA season, Stockton had already established himself as one of the top point guards in the league. That season, he helped the Jazz finish the regular season with a record of 54-28.
The Jazz took care of business in the first round of the postseason against the Suns and finished the series 3-1. They advanced to the second round of the playoffs to face off against the Portland Trail Blazers, who finished the regular season with a league-best 63-19 record.
It was a pretty one-sided series as the Trail Blazers sent the Jazz home by winning the series 4-1. But there was one moment in the series that grabbed a lot of attention from fans at the time.
Yes, we are talking about the infamous incident when Mark Bryant accidentally stepped on John Stockton’s face.
Considering the fact that Mark Bryant weighed 245 lbs at the time, getting stepped on by him must have inflicted a lot of pain on Stockton. Despite that, Stockton completed the entire series and averaged stunning numbers, as always.
In the five games that he played, Stockton averaged 18.4 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 14.6 APGH, alongside 2.8 SPG, after all, Stockton was amazing at stealing the ball as well. All things considered, Stockton and co. played well in the series, but the Trail Blazers were simply the better team.
The Jazz would later go on to advance to the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals. But each time, the dynamic duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton would be stopped by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0k_d-HcQYI
Stats via Basketball Reference
