Yes, there was a time when John Stockton was fighting just to be noticed.
It actually took him three full seasons to become a starter in Utah, and his coming-out party was the ’88 Western Conference Semi-Finals against the defending champion Lakers. The Jazz took LA to seven, where they eventually lost.
Stockton earned league-wide respect with his ridiculous 115 assists in the seven games – that’s 16.4 per game for you math majors trying to tabulate.
He also handed out 24 assists in Game 5 in LA, still tied for the all-time playoff record. It’s a game they air on NBA TV on occasion – one that ended with a Michael Cooper buzzer-beater - and Stock’s performance needs to be shown to any kid who wants to grow up to play the point guard position the right way. He also had 29 and 20 in Game 7 - do I need to even try to explain just how crazy that is?
In honor of Stockton’s amazing series, I’ve done some digging around to find links to further reading (courtesy of the NY Times archives) -
Game 3 \ Game 4 \ Game 5 \ Game 6 \ Game 7
(UPDATE: Found on YouTube (of course) Stockton's record-setting game and a recap of the Jazz-Lakers series)
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