Point Guard 101

Video / Apr 25, 2008 / 10:28 am

Mo Williams, Jamaal Tinsley, Derek Fisher, Nate Robinson, T.J. Ford, Gilbert Arenas … please take four minutes out of your day and watch this. And for everyone else, tell me this man wasn’t the prototype for what Steve Nash is today.

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46 Responses to “Point Guard 101”

April 25th, 2008 at 10:36 am

Dave says:

Thanks, hadn’t seen that before and what a great player he was. Set the hardest picks and hit more game winners than anyone in his time, including MJ.
He was nails, glad to see we’ve finally got some point guards again in the leauge who someday could be mentioned in the same sentence as Stockton.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:38 am

fallinup says:

Bar none, Nash is Stockton 2.0. All kids growing up as a PG should study Stockton, and try to take on everyone of his traits. Be it passing skills, shooting skills, tenacity, and endurance…aside from not being a shutdown defender…Stockton had it all…even the short shorts!
April 25th, 2008 at 10:38 am

Juanito says:

How many rings did Stockton end up with? Oh yeah, lol, I forgot…
April 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Dave says:

Juanito, how many rings do you have? You probably strut around in a Marbury jersey, and can’t figure out why Stromile gets such a bad rap.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:58 am

Yooooo says:

Thanx for posting this. I’ve been arguing with two of my boys about how GREAT Stockton was. I wasn’t a fan of his, because I despised Utah, but he was just good man. One of the best point guards I actually got to watch being only 23.

And I dont think you can mention Steve Nash with this guy, cuz at least he tried on defense. He was phenomenal at reading passing lanes, and picking his spots to gamble. Smart dude.

And as far as rings go Juanito, how many great point guards in the last 10 years have won rings???
April 25th, 2008 at 10:58 am

shourjo says:

Nash definitely emulates Stockton on the offensive end. Both guys are certainly warriors and play with that grit. It should be noted though that Stockton, unlike Nash and despite his diminutive statute, was never a defense liability in his prime.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:03 am

K Dizzle says:

All time steals AND assists. Stock was the man, probably coulda played 2-3 more years at a high level
April 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am

Dave says:

And Stockton was a ball player, he hated the press and the notoriety that came with being a pro athlete and was real. Same guy that was drafted was the same guy that announced his retirement to a handful of reporters who were there when they cleaned out their lockers. No hype, nothing but “I think I’m done playing.” and that was it.
Nash is very talented and can do some things with the ball that are amazing, but nobody will match Stockton’s heart, will, competetiveness, and flat out willingness to do whatever it took to make his team win.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:31 am

doc says:

Stock was the shit.But I dont know about more game winners than Mike Dave show and prove that statement.But I would say he is top10 PG’s ever,EASY.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:36 am

PALakerFan says:

That’s why it blows that Nash won 2 MVP’s. He can’t carry Stockton’s jock.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am

DaPro says:

Nash tries to play D, he’s actually a decent help and off ball defender but on the ball he gets worked. I don’t understand why he sucks defensively because he has good instincts but he does suck on D. Stockton was nice no question about that. I think he had some Bruce Bowen in his blood on some plays I’ve seen him make (elbows, knees, etc.) but his game couldn’t be questioned. Nash does immulate Stock and I can’t blame him for that.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:49 am

JA says:

As bad/funny as it sounds, Stockton was the reason why I started hating the Bulls. He deserved a championship.

He was truly a joy to watch, and as much as I love Nash, Stock is what a PG should strive to be.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:50 am

Dave says:

The last second shot info was accurate up through the 97 season (Stock played another couple of years after that). I’ll dig and see if I can find it at Elias but I covered the NBA for 5 years as a reporter and NBC used it in one of their pre-games of a Jazz-Lakers playoff game and it was in the pre-game Jazz notes for a year or so.
If you look at Stock’s shooting % and scoring in the last 5 minutes of games it was astounding, something like 60%.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:53 am

Jonny G says:

The only reason IMO great players like Stockton didn’t get rings was because they played in the wrong era. So many other great players would probably have gotten rings if they didn’t have to go up against MJ’s Bulls.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am

Dave says:

Nash deserved his MVP’s. Stockton wouldn’t have even accepted that he was the MVP of the Jazz and if you look at who won MVP’s in Stock’s prime you see there were players at a much higher level than Nash had to compete with. Bird, Magic, MJ, Malone, Olajuwan, and Barkley all had the headlines and Stockton was happy to just be the guy out there playing basketball for a living. That doesn’t mean he isn’t better than Nash though, just that he had a different mindset, abhorred self promotion, and frankly didn’t care what anyone thought about him so he was never mentioned as an MVP. Plus his number of productive years in his career are double what Nash will end up with.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

shaq,russell,chamberlain,duncan,hakeem,jabbar,jordan says:

cold but true… stockton and nash are great pgs, but how many rings have they won???… that question goes also the glove, nate “tiny”, tim hardaway, kevin a.k.a the landlord johnson…. y’all guards need a big man who if not great is atleast an allstar caliber to win a championship… a classic example, showtime lakers… this game is a big man game, stop debating!!! centers,forwards and JORDAN rule this game… start giving us the ball or start playin baseball…!
April 25th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

QQ says:

When everyone else was balling to be like Mike, I’m running drills to ball like Stockton.

Man, that frail white kid is one hard warrior.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

GEE...Until you do right by me... says:

Stockton was a pleasure to watch whenever he wasn’t playing the Rockets lol.

Seriously him and Mark Jackson were two of my favorite guards back then. Stockon was awesome in just being an ultimate floor general. He made you mad with his steals cause he was so sneaky and he had great timing and selection with shots and passes (wow beautiful pure passes).
He waaaaaaaaaaaas dirty though. That dirty rascal would do some foul ish. Can’t trip though, cause he knew how to get away with it in a smooth criminal sense.
I will say he deserved a ring. I always thought they needed that third offensive player to get them over the hump.
Stockton was ill though!
April 25th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Dave says:

he wore the label as a dirty player with pride I think, even though everyone in Utah hated that people looked at him that way. The only person Stockton cared what they thought were his coach and teammates and they loved what he would do for them.
I remember when he and Elden Campbell got into a fight at a game in Utah, Larry Miller started onto the floor and was threatening Campbell and Stockton didn’t back down an inch and shoved Campbell hard. It all started because Campbell didn’t like a pick Stock set on him.
Gee you’re right, the Jazz never had another big scorer and MJ was too tough. They won 64 games one year and dominated the league and still couldn’t get the big one.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

DNM says:

“I always thought they needed that third offensive player to get them over the hump.”

They had Greg Ostertag.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Icy says:

Man can you say “one handed pass” That is the reason that man led in assists. Watch that video again and look at all the flip wrist bullets. What PG now does that accurately?

Oh and he played for almost 20 years with only one surgery. Amazing.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

mister sun says:

@ doc:

only top 10 pg ever? i didn?t like him, but he is easily in the top 3
April 25th, 2008 at 12:49 pm

SWAT says:

As much as i hated Stock that dude was cold blooded. I hated when he played us…i still remember that 97 playoff series. Damn i hated the Jazz! But i will say that with out him Malone would have been nothing. It’s my belief that dude was a little overrated. Anyway Stock was gangster and a hell of a ballplayer!
April 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

doc says:

Top 3 Mister Sun.Magic Oscar Zeke.Case closed brother Sun.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

bliz289 says:

if you don’t get chills watching this video then you aren’t a true fan of the game.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Amar says:

thanks for linking to a vid i uploaded . . .
April 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

PALakerFan says:

5 years from now, it’s going to be Magic and CP3 as to who’s best PG ever.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Amar says:

additonally, stock has bigger hands than someone for his size, so that helped with the ball handling and passing. and look at how many times he played all 82 + playoffs. when was the last time nash played a full season?
April 25th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

Yooooo says:

The Jazz 3rd scorer was Horancek. Let’s not forget about him. He was cold in his own right
April 25th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

daquest?on says:

i think stockton is good but he is overrated
April 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

bron42 had springs before slamball says:

if by prototype your mean good pg but doesn’t win the big game? ya i guess thats nash’s prototype lol but harsh critics aside, he did hold his own in the NBA hayday and while I HATED karl malone and loved when rodman bitched him, always been a stockton fan. Personally overall I think he was levels ahead of nash and no dave, nash didn’t deserve those MVPs. Other guys had better stats, were more important to their teams,made it farther in the post season, better records etc…nash got it for bein the great white hope which is why he still hasn’t won a ring yet has been on teams loaded with other allstars. But my question is, why don’t we see more stockton/jason kidd pgs and instead all these tweener combo guards now days? is it just cuz of the spotlight on scoring?
April 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

daquest?on says:

yo bron did u make the cut in slamball?
April 25th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

bron42 had springs before slamball says:

list of greats whose hopes jordan crushed and stole their rings…..thats should be Dimes next article (and i want credit for it) lol:
Ewing, Barkley, stockton and malone, the glove and shawn kemp,the early cavs, all of new york city (he stole the big apples soul mortal kombat style)…feel free to add more
April 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

bron42 had springs before slamball says:

i had to leave to get a mri on my shoulder. the slamball draft is tomorrow so we’ll know who made it and who didn’t then.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Len Bias says:

Stockton has the record for career assist and steal but what is really impressive is the large margin he has over second place. Assist: 2nd place, Mark Jackson, only has 65% as many assist as Stockton. Steals: 2nd place, MJ, only has 77% as many steals as Stockton

Also, Stockton played in every single game for 17 of his 19 seasons (one of those season where he didnt play every single game, he only missed 4 games).
April 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm

DaPro says:

Gee…

you got a thing for unathletic pg’s I see Stock and Mark Jax lol

I like them cats too but I was always a Magic, Zeke dude myself. Still I got love for the pg’s who held it down when I started watching ball. KJ, Timmy 2 step, Zeke, Magic, Stockton, Rod Strickland, GP, JKIDD, the list goes on.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Jeffrey says:

John Stockton is the NBA’s version of Ric Flair. He is the dirtiest player in the game. In his series clashes with Houston in the mid 90′s, he would often get away with dirty plays that would not only get me mad but at the same time make me admire his cunning. He’s a true hall of fame player
April 25th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

GEE...Until you do right by me... says:

bron I like that. Jordan sure did take alot of rings from cats. Tim Duncan has a couple of cats rings too.
Bet Kobe loves A.I.’s ring lol.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

K Dizzle says:

GP got a ring…
April 25th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

TG says:

John Stockton is my favorite all-time player. He was 2nd team All-Defense FIVE times. So anyone who thinks he wasn’t a very good defensive guard are just wrong. I hated the fact that he never got a ring — I still think that if that ref had had the balls to call Jordan for that blatant pushoff on Russell in Game 6, the Jazz would have won the title that year — as Game 7 would have been on Utah’s home court.

What people tend to forget about Stockton is what a great shooter he was. he shot 51.5% from the field for his career. If he had been so inclined, he could have averaged 20+ PPG easy. But he didn’t care about scoring — unless the Jazz really needed him to do so. Then he usually came up big.

Nash is the closest to Stockton among the current crop of PGs when it comes to court vision, creativity, etc. and as a great shooter But although he tries on that end of the floor, Nash couldn’t hold Stockton’s jock as a defender.

Among the young guys, neither Paul nor D-Will is in Stockton’s league as a pure shooter, and their floor games aren’t real similar to Stockton’s. But both guys are terrific PGs in their own right.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

K Dizzle says:

Calderon before the all-star break was like Stockton Lite……real real lite
April 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

Big T music dot com says:

You know Stockton is out there killing some rec league right now.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Teddy says:

I remember Stockon bein nice when i was watchin him as a youngin but i used 2 think he was a mad fundamental white picket fence player. watchin that highlight he look like he had some flash on him….MJ did eat his shit up tho after the steal lol
April 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

Joe BreeZee says:

Nice video on Stockton. He is one of the best to ever play his position and he played the game the right way. He is a perfect example of a person that was never the biggest, strongest, or maybe even the fastest but he worked hard to perfect his craft and had fun playing the GAME of basketball. It is good tv to see these athletes today playing the game ‘above the rim’ and/or the ‘and 1′ style but I hope that every kid that loves the game gets exposed to some of the greats (and sometimes unknowns) of yesteryears like Stockton, Reggie Miller, Hakeem ‘the Dream’, and the list goes on.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Matt says:

I grew up with stockton, down in salt lake, and he still is my all time favorite player. I’ve met the guy, and honestly, he is just like your next door neighbor, would probably just sit down and have a drink with you if he wanted to.

Anyway, Stock was a ridiculous player, and I’ve got to say cold-blooded, or even ice-blooded. That series vs. houston in ’97 to send us to the Finals, awesome.

I will say this though, Stockton was one of the dirtiest players to EVER play the game, he just wore people down, he did what he had to do to win, and honestly, I don’t think he wouldn’t have broken as many rules as possible if it meant he would’ve had a ring.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:29 am

Mattedubbs says:

compared to Nash, lucky Stock aint dead or he’d be turning in his grave…

Nash can’t guard his own shadow. Stockton would’ve eaten Nash alive both ends!!!

Stockton would be the perfect PG for the current Spurs outfit. hated by competitors but grudgingly respected, tough as nails… cheap if you want to call it so but if the guy had to do something to win he would.

shame he ran into the MJ era or he’d have a ‘chip to show for all the hard work