If you break Stockton's
career onto halves, the Young Stockton of 1985-93 averaged
13.1 ppg (9,634 total) and 11.4 apg (8,352 total) while
missing only 4 games in those 9 seasons; the Old Stockton
of 1994-03 averaged 13.2 ppg (10,077 total) and 9.7 apg
(7,454 total) while missing only 18 games in those 10
seasons. In other words, if you took the "Whole" Stockton
off the career list, the Young Stockton would be 6th all
time in career assists behind only Mark Jackson, Magic
Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas, and Gary Payton
and the Old Stockton would be 9th all time also behind Rod
Strickland and Jason Kidd. BOTH Young and Old Stockton
have better numbers than Nash has had for his entire
career, and BOTH Young and Old Stockton would have strong
arguments for inclusion in the Hall of Fame.
During Stockton's 19-year career, the Jazz never missed
the playoffs, finishing 1st in their division six times,
2nd six more times, 3rd three times, and 4th four times
(Stockton's first two seasons and his last two seasons).
John Stockton was the Wayne Gretzky of point guards: he
re-wrote the record books. Stockton holds not only every
important career mark for a PG (assists and steals -- by
incredible margins: 50% more assists than next highest and
30% more steals), but, he also holds several other
single-season marks. Stockton’s other assists records
included most in a season (1,164) (in fact he holds the
top 4 positions and 7 of the top 9), highest average for a
season (14.5 apg), most seasons leading league (9), and
most consecutive seasons leading league (9). Stockton also
shares the record for most assists in a playoff game (24),
has the second-highest assists average for a career (10.5
apg)*, and is tied for third for most assists in a regular
season game (28).
*Note that Stockton easily holds the career mark for
assist per 48 minutes at 15.9 assists per 48 minutes
compared to Magic's 14.6 per 48 minutes, and would easily
hold the career assists per game mark if, like Magic, he
been given an opportunity to start at the beginning of his
career and retired after 12 seasons. Stockton averaged
only 21.5 mpg his first three seasons while Magic averaged
37.2 mpg in his first three seasons. Stockton averaged
15.3 assists per 48 minutes in his first 3 seasons as a
backup to Rickey Green; Magic averaged 10.9 assists per 48
minutes as a starter. During one 10-year stretch of his
career, Stockton averaged an amazing 12.84 assists per
game.
When comparing Stockton to other great point guards, it
also is interesting to note that he is 3rd all time (and
1st among elite PGs) in assist ratio, which essentially
measures the number of assists per 100 team possessions.
With an assist ratio of 43.59, Stockton is behind only
Muggsy Bogues (a bit of a statistical anomaly even though
he averaged 7.6 apg for his career) and Nate McMillan.
Magic ranks 16th, Nash is 25th, Kids is 26th, and Isiah
Thomas is 69th.
As far as PER's go, Stockton's career PER of 21.83 is 27th
all time -- and either 2nd, 3rd, or 4th among PG's
depending on who you count as a true PG -- behind only
Magic's 24.11, Oscar Robertson's 23.20, and Jerry West's
22.92. Stockton is ahead of Kevin Johnson's 20.70, Bob
Cousy's 19.83, Sam Cassell's 19.80, Terrell Brandon's
19.69, Mark Price's 19.61, Steve Nash's 19.45, Stephon
Marbury's 19.43, Gary Payton's 19.21, Jason Kidd's 18.81,
Sidney Moncrief's 18.69, Steve Francis's 18.64, and Tim
Hardaway's 18.61. Isiah Thomas's 18.1 doesn't even break
the Top 100.
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