Stockton, John

John Stockton, in full John Houston Stockton, (born March 26, 1962, Spokane, Washington, U.S.), American professional basketball player who is considered one of the greatest point guards ever to play the sport. In his 19-year career with the Utah Jazz, he set National Basketball Association (NBA) records for most career assists (15,806) and steals (3,265).

Stockton played collegiate basketball at Gonzaga University in his hometown of Spokane, Washington, where he became the school’s all-time leader in assists and steals. He was selected by the Jazz in the first round of the 1984 NBA draft. Stockton became the team’s starting point guard in his fourth season, and he promptly led the league in assists in his first year leading the Jazz offense. That 1987–88 season was the first of nine consecutive seasons in which Stockton was the NBA’s assist leader; he achieved a single-season record of 1,164 assists in 1990–91. A great number of his assists came on passes to power forward Karl Malone, with whom Stockton formed one of the most effective pick-and-roll combinations in NBA history. At 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 metres) tall, Stockton made up for his lack of height with his tenacious, high-energy play that was sometimes viewed as dirty by his opponents. A particularly energetic on-ball defender, he twice led the NBA in steals (1988–89, 1991–92).

Stockton never missed the playoffs in his nearly two decades playing for the Jazz, but—despite leading the team to a five conference finals appearances and two berths in the NBA finals (1997, 1998)—he retired in 2003 having never won an NBA championship. He won two Olympic gold medals as a member of the U.S. men’s national basketball team (1992, 1996). Stockton garnered 10 career All-Star Game selections and was named first-team All-NBA twice (1993–94, 1994–95). He was honoured as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history in 1996 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. Stockton’s autobiography, Assisted (written with Kerry L. Pickett), was published in 2013.