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Significant Jazz/Stockton talk in Grantland Article about Chris Webber

sirkickyass

sirkickyass

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I won't link the article directly because it contains non Jazz-fanz friendly language. Relevant portion below.

We all know it’s true, but it’s something else to relive again over an extended watch: John Stockton was a ****ing badass. It wasn’t just the (possibly dirty) screens and the occasional tussles with much larger men. Stockton was fearless in big moments, one of those guys that played postseason crunch time with the same system-based precision he brought to every other moment — only with more willingness to shoot if a decent opportunity presented itself, especially when faced with a time constraint.

I mean, his game-winner at the buzzer of Game 4 against the upstart Kings in 1999 is just a normal Stockton-Malone pick-and-roll:

[video=youtube_share;Mgq1MBRyl8I]https://youtu.be/Mgq1MBRyl8I

I had honestly forgotten about the specifics of that shot. That might be because the Jazz in that season flamed out in the second round, removing some of the shot’s historical import. It’s also just a run-of-the-mill Stockton/Malone pick-and-roll, only under time pressure.

• You know who hasn’t forgotten about that shot? The Kings. Jon Barry, who had a solid series off the bench for Sacramento, gave me some good-natured grief for bringing it up before I even got the full two syllables of “Utah” out of my mouth. He was on the floor for that possession, and he says coach Rick Adelman instructed Divac (guarding Malone) to switch onto Stockton on any pick-and-roll. And if you watch the play, you can see that Stockton’s man (Maxwell) seems to think he should switch onto Malone upon being screened. But Divac only temporarily lunges at Stockton before scurrying back to Malone, leaving Stockton open for the season-saver. Ouch.

• These games are only between 10 and 15 years old, but it’s amazing how far our ability to evaluate players and teams has come in that time. Reliable and easily accessible play-by-play data only goes back to about 2001, and without that information, even the very best sites can’t provide the next-level stuff for those years — data on five-man (or four-man, or three-man) lineups, shooting maps, adjusted plus/minus, crunch-time statistics, etc. The fancier data-tracking systems, including Synergy Sports and the SportVU camera system, weren’t around then. It’s like researching the Stone Age, at least relative to the information we have available now. And that makes it even more important that we all work extra hard to test the assumptions and theories we carry from eras that preceded the NBA’s great data age. We should assume our memories are inaccurate, at least to some degree.

• Both Barry and former Kings president Geoff Petrie mentioned this Webber cheap shot on Stockton in Game 2 of that Utah-Sacramento series as a galvanizing moment in the history of the Kings’ franchise (see about the one-miniute mark):

[video in second post]

In that video, Webber says he told teammates he was going to “lay out” Stockton, but Barry claims no one on the team knew.

• Utah should be fined retroactively for wearing jerseys that did not include the “J” in the shape of a musical note, with a multicolored basketball as the circle in that note.

• It’s rare to watch a player have a legitimate, prolonged on-court meltdown in the NBA, but Jason Williams had one in Game 5 of the Utah-Sacramento series in 1999. He fouled Stockton three times in a 40-second span (of game time, anyway), and the three fouls were basically increasingly aggressive hip checks. Williams was frustrated chasing Stockton through screens, along with a no-call on the other end. The officials finally T’d him up after the third hip check, when he continued to argue. Utah was in the bonus, so Williams essentially gave the Jazz seven points in an elimination game before Adelman removed him.

• Webber also came out fired up in that game, at one point getting into a shoving match with Malone. Actual exchange between Doug Collins and Bob Costas about the shove:

Collins: “He’s loaded with talent, Chris Webber.”

Costas: “And attitude!”

ZING!
Click to expand...

I forgot this game happened, but the entire thing is on youtube and it truly is excellent. Not normally what we think of as a pantheon jazz game because it immediately followed the 97/98 Finals runs and everyone is disappointed by what happened during the lockout season. With enough time behind us now I can say that this game is truly a joy to watch.

As much as we all love Stockton, I think it's fair to say that we forget how extraordinary he was. I know I almost always remember him as being fantastically boring. A killer that didn't do the flashy thing. In watching the videos, it's apparent that he was really Steve Nash 2.0 before Nash ever existed. Some of his plays near the baseline are near identical to what we think of as MVP-era Nash lofting in floaters in mid-flight. It's astonishing that Nash will probably be remembered as flashier and more exciting than Stockton. It's probably difficult to find players more similar to the naked eye test.
 
Because of the max 1 video per thread rule I've placed the second video from the article here:

[video=youtube_share;d2w2we7iSiY]https://youtu.be/d2w2we7iSiY
 
I remember that game and loved it. Stockton was so in JW's head that game and that series. Everybody coming in talked a whole lot of crap about how JW was going to dominate Stockton because of his speed and athleticism and Stockton just did what he does and owned another wanna be Pg.
 
Sirkickyass said:
Because of the max 1 video per thread rule I've placed the second video from the article here:
Click to expand...


1 video per thread = 1 video per thread. As this is the second video you posted in this thread, please delete your account.
 
Interesting timing ... considering Randle is most often compared to Webber. A sign? We must ask kicky.
 
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