Stockton’s Critics Should Look Closer
The Chicago Bulls will run four different defenders at John Stockton again tonight, but their press can’t be any worse than what he’s endured this past year.
Like the guy in The Sporting News who sniped last January that Stockton’s “defense is so bad that opposing guards are sending limos for him.”
Ouch. Anyone get the license number?
And the fellow in the Salt Lake paper who in February offered that “he’s getting lit up like a tidy pile of pre-soaked Kingsford briquets.”
Pass the Unguantine, will you?
Take it all the way back to last June, when columnists began suggesting the Utah Jazz guard rotate the tires on his walker and turn up the volume on his hearing aid.
“Stockton is no longer the smartest, toughest, most effective guard in the West,” wrote one, noting that Stockton had “passed the torch to Gary Payton, who pretty much clubbed him with it.”
And he was right. Well, half right.
The way Payton dominated the rival point guard he professes to admire the most in last year’s NBA Western Conferences finals is something Stockton can never undo. Unless you count the way he’s driven the Jazz into this year’s NBA Finals - from which, it can’t help but be noticed, Payton’s Seattle SuperSonics are conspicuously absent.
“Literally carried through the playoffs,” said Jazz assistant Gordon Chiesa. “We basically rode his back the whole time.”
Never more so, of course, than in the last 90 seconds of Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against Houston, during which Stockton scored nine points - including the 3-pointer at the buzzer that, to this point, goes down as the biggest shot in Jazz history.
But the rebirth, if you will, of John Stockton is no tale of easy absolutes - any more than was the Spokane native’s long apprenticeship to ac claim as one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all time.
For instance, in a Game 1 loss to the Bulls on Sunday, Stockton committed a career playoff high seven turnovers two barely a minute apart that helped the Bulls turn a 75-70 Jazz advantage into their own 76-75 lead.
Funny thing about those turnovers, however.
“I don’t know how he turned the ball over seven times,” said Ron Harper, the Bull given primary responsibility for defending Stockton. “To tell you the truth, I sure didn’t see them.”
Perhaps because Harper was having troubles of his own. For while Stockton - whose line also included 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 12 assists and three steals - had some trouble with the turnovers, the three Bulls who matched up against Stockton and rapidly improving backup Howard Eisley made just 2 of 9 shots and were outscored 25-8.
That the Bulls are giving Stockton his sternest test this side of Payton is obvious. Harper is 6-foot-6 with extremely long arms, though several knee operations have cut into his mobility. Randy Brown stays on the Bulls roster - and on the floor - through sheer tenacity. Steve Kerr is a deep-shooting threat who keeps defenders from straying to help elsewhere, which the Jazz guards are regularly asked to do.
And when Bulls coach Phil Jackson feels like it, he can put Michael Jordan - still one of the game’s best defenders - on Stockton.
“And, basically, that’s the only way we can defend him - with four guys,” said Kerr.
“If anything, he’s playing better than he ever has. He’s passing is as good as ever, and I don’t think he was the shooter three years ago that he is now. Maybe the fact that they moved the 3-point line in has helped him quite a bit. His range seems to be right there. I know he’s always been a high-percentage shooter and gets a lot of layups, but the last couple years his outside shot has improved and as a result he’s playing better than ever.”
Obviously - given the examples cited earlier - there are dissenting opinions.
They started piling up in December, after a stretch of five games in which opposing point guards - Cleveland’s Terrell Brandon, Minnesota’s Stephon Marbury and the Clippers’ Darrick Martin, specifically - had career nights against the Jazz. What went unreported was that in that same stretch, Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson and Portland’s Kenny Anderson shot a combined 9 of 34.
And while Martin - a journeyman CBA type - went off for 38 points in one of his two starts opposite Stockton, he later had 31 against Payton, the best defensive guard in basketball.
“This league is full of good players, and a lot of good, young point guards,” said Kerr. “To expect anybody’s going to stop all of them night after night is just not realistic.” And most nights, Stockton must have done something right. At season’s end, NBA coaches voted him to the NBA’s All-Defensive second team. Only Jordan, Payton and Mookie Blaylock among guards earned more votes.
Interestingly, Stockton had not been accorded the honor since 1992. “People who are saying (he’s over the hill) are people with low basketball I.Q.s,” fired Portland coach P.J. Carlesimo told the Deseret News earlier in the season. “I mean no disrespect, but I’m talking about media people. I’m not saying they’re not intelligent, but they don’t have high basketball I.Q.s.”
The fact is, Stockton is now 35 and, given that little men age faster in the NBA than do the giants, should be inching past his physical prime, whether anyone in Utah wants to acknowledge it or not. His points and assists dipped fractionally in 1997, but to what consequence? The Jazz won more games than ever. Karl Malone had an MVP year. Bryon Russell, Greg Ostertag and Shandon Anderson accounted for 23 points a game for the Jazz, compared to 6.5 the year before. Stockton relinquished the NBA assist title after winning it nine straight times, but the Jazz had more assists as a team.
And when it counted the most - the Houston series - Stockton was dominant. Where the Sonics had managed to turn young Matt Maloney into Jerry West, Stockton turned him into chopped liver.
“Here’s a guy that knows so much about the game and what his team needs him to do,” said Harper. “No, I don’t think he’s lost a thing. I know he’s as smart, as crafty as he ever was and that’s probably the most important thing anyway.”
Not as important as who wins this series. But important enough.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review