Stockton Malone Shorts got a Jazzy name from his parents

SALT LAKE CITY – In Utah, the name Stockton is nothing close to an anomaly.

It seems to make sense, especially since Salt Lake City housed the former Jazz star John Stockton for nearly two decades. The city even put up a statue of the NBA great outside of the Vivint Smart Home Arena, home of the Utah Jazz, and named a street after Stockton. Parents in Utah in the 1990s and early 2000s followed the hype.

Even Rylan Shorts, a longtime Jazz fan in Salt Lake City, liked the idea of naming his future son after his favorite basketball player.

“I knew that when he got married his first son would be named Stockton. That was kind of a prenup. There was no negotiating that,” Rylan’s wife, Kelly, said.

It didn’t take long for Kelly to understand why the name resonated with her husband.

In 1996, Rylan and Kelly went to watch the USA basketball team play in an exhibition game in Phoenix.

While walking down a street in downtown Phoenix, Rylan, who was in his Utah Jazz hat, and Kelly were startled by van that had driven up next to them. The driver beckoned them, asking Rylan where he got his hat.

Then the couple was surprised again.

“The van pulls over and Jerry (Sloan), Karl Malone and John pop out,” Rylan said.

At the time, Sloan, who was the head coach of the Jazz, was serving as an assistant coach to the USA team. Two of his Jazz players, Malone and Stockton, were on the roster.

They stepped out of the vehicle and approached Rylan and Kelly on the street, eventually signing autographs for them before drawing a small crowd.

“It was sort of surreal,” Kelly said. “They didn’t have to do that, they didn’t have to stop … It was sort of after that experience that it was like, OK, I get why he (Rylan) respects these guys so much.”

After that day, Kelly was hooked on the name. In 1998, when their first son was born, Rylan and Kelly named their child Stockton Malone Shorts – a name that would embody the two hardworking, “no-nonsense” men they had met just a couple years earlier.

But they didn’t realize that their son’s name would make him a novelty.

Stockton Shorts, the clothing item, became widely known later on in John Stockton’s career as the piece of apparel that Stockton refused to leave behind in the 1980s. While the rest of the league began wearing longer shorts on the court, Stockton stayed in his shorter shorts that stopped mid-thigh.

“I’m not really available for much change. I stick by my old guns,” Stockton told the WCC’s Sarah Kezele last week in Las Vegas when he was inducted into the West Coast Conference Hall of Honor. “I never knew I had a choice. When I arrived in Utah, they gave me a pair of shorts. They never asked me, ‘Do you want to lengthen them?’ ”

Rylan and Kelly’s son, Stockton Shorts, said he won’t adopt the classic ’80s basketball shorts while he plays basketball for his high school team in Utah.

“I could never wear shorts up that high,” Stockton Shorts said. “It would be weird.”

But he also won’t settle for long shorts. He likes to roll his shorts up to make them not quite as long as the standard length.

“I just don’t like them to go past my knees,” he said.

Stockton Shorts is in his final year at Copper Hills High School in West Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The standout guard helped lead his team through the state tournament before falling in a semifinal showing this month. In that game, he led the Copper Hills Grizzlies with 32 points and 12 rebounds.

Stockton Shorts said he’s received offers from several smaller schools and one Division I school on the east side of the country. He said he would love to play for a Division I team, but he’s willing to work his way up from a lower division.

“You always want to go to like Duke or North Carolina,” Stockton Shorts said. And, of course, he wouldn’t complain about being a Zag. “Gonzaga has a really great atmosphere,” he said.

But for now, he’s considering staying local and possibly attending Salt Lake Community College. He’s also looking to play for junior colleges and Division III schools elsewhere who have shown interest in him, such as Central Wyoming or Whitworth.

Wherever he goes, he’s certain to draw attention with his name, something Kelly only hopes will motivate him to keep working hard like the men he was named after.

“I’m proud of his name,” Kelly said. She said it’s a name that embodies “humble beginnings, hard work … loyalty and dedication.

“I want my kid to be like that,” Kelly said.