John Stockton
Former NBA player.
Page 1 of 1
I try to block out most things – it’s emotional and I really don’t like to go there a whole lot. All those people there, I try not to pay a whole lot of attention. We had the fog come in as I walked in and I tried to be careful not to hit something or trip and that took my mind off of everything, it was a nice diversion.
No, you don’t know the agony it took to get to that point. Once I reached that point I was sure, even if it didn’t come out very well.
To be honest, for the first 15 years, I didn’t know we had a say in it. I figured shorts are shorts, I’ve never had a say in what size the shorts were since I was a little kid. I was lucky I wasn’t wearing my brother’s most of the time, it’s just what you have. It came to a surprise when people were making fun of me, ‘I can change them?’ And I didn’t want to at that point, they were comfortable. Styles are going to come and go. I think it’s easier to stay with what you’re comfortable with.
I imagine I’ll do my fair share of coaching but it might be soccer, volleyball, football at a kid’s level. I never burn bridges and I never say never but to me that sounds a lot more exciting than just about anything else.
I like Jason Kidd, I like the way he competes. People have criticisms of his game but one thing the guy does is he competes and he lays it all out here an I respect that.
I knew that as a freshman when I was a 105lbs I can tell you why I finished playing football. I went to tackle a tight end out on the flat, hit him as hard as I could, and he bounced up and ran back to the huddle. I sat there and ached and said, ‘this is not a very good game for me.’ When I signed the letter of intent to go to Gonzaga in my senior year of high school, I spoke with the baseball coach, and that’s when I gave that up to concentrate solely on basketball.
Bus rides, the locker room, just being around the fellas. I’ll never be a part of a team like this again and that’s something you can’t get back and it’s part of the decision - you have to sit and weigh it. You know you’re never going to get that back. Jerry’s been fortunate enough to stay in it after he’s played and he’s coached and even though it’s different as a coach, I know it will never be the same as it is walking into the locker room now or getting on the bus, you can’t relive that.
Over the course of the last few years I’ve been to the stage a number of times where I said, this is it. One time I remember I bent my finger back and wondered what I was still doing in this game. I had those feelings a number of times as I mentioned over the past few seasons. Then it came to the playoffs and not really being able to get over the top against a very good team or in my opinion be able to challenge them much, I think that was the final indicator.
Probably my older brother. I never won at anything for probably the first 18 years of my life; I lost everything I did. All I really wanted to do was beat him once at something and I didn’t care what it was.
It’s the best game in world, that’s part of the fun playing with Jerry (Sloan) – he recognizes that and protects it. Some people don’t understand that protection but he will fight for this game. I’d say it’s something I’ve loved since I was a kid.
I don’t think I could count them on one hand. A couple that stick right out, which I enjoyed the battles, were Kevin Johnson, Mark Price, Gary Payton. There’s a number of others, I never really had the opportunity to match up against Magic Johnson because he was too big and I always guarded Byron Scott but I still admired him.
I think if I were to list the things that I asked not to be done, most of them happened tonight. So Larry did it and of course when he had helped and when they (Larry and John’s wife) double teamed me like that it’s difficult. Now that it’s over, it was great. It’s kind of like a hard work out. It was fun to see the faces of my teammates out there, some past, some present. It was have fun to have Jerry (Sloan) come up on the stage and Larry (Miller) and so many others. It was very touching and I thought Nada (John’s wife) did a great job and that was also very touching and I was impressed – so it was a good night.
Page 1 of 1