The one NBA player John Stockton has been compared to more than any other is Bob Cousy, who starred for the Boston Celtics for 13 seasons. Like Cousy, Stockton is a 6-foot-1, 175-pound point guard, who has made his mark in the NBA because of his extraordinary passing ability.
After Thursday night's game with the Lakers, Stockton and Cousy are equal in another way. They're tied for 6th on the all-time NBA assists list with 6,955 assists after Stockton dished out 18 in the Jazz victory.Not that Stockton gives a hoot about his latest accomplishment as he makes his steady climb up the NBA assist ladder. He couldn't care less - at least he says he doesn't. When told he had tied Cousy with his 18 assists, he shrugged and said "Somebody told me before the game (where I stood), but that's the least of my worries out there."
Stockton knows all about Cousy, who helped lead the Celtics to six NBA titles and led the league in assists eight years running. But he says he's never compared himself to Cousy or never patterned his game after the Celtic star, who retired nearly 30 years ago, after the 1962-63 season.
"The game's changed so much and I never got a chance to see him much except on a few highlights," said Stockton. "When you win a bunch of championships like he did, he obviously did things right and I admire him for that."
Against the Lakers, Stockton picked up four assists in the first quarter and had 10 by halftime. In the third quarter, in which he played his usual seven minutes, he dished out four more, including three straight to Jeff Malone in a dizzying 51-second stretch when the Jazz went from a 63-62 deficit to a 68-65 lead.
After getting to 16 with assists to Blue Edwards and Tyrone Corbin early in the fourth quarter, he assisted Karl Malone on consecutive layups when the Jazz were reeling off eight straight points to take a 94-86 lead. But after Stockton's assist at the 3:39 mark, the Jazz wouldn't score another field goal, missing five straight down the stretch, including a couple off Stockton passes.
That Stockton would reach another assist milestone against the Lakers was appropriate. The NBA's all-time assist leader with 9,921 happens to be Magic Johnson, whose Laker team is obviously not the same without him. ("If you took Karl Malone off our team, don't you think we'd be different?" asked Stockton.)
According to a Los Angeles writer, last year Johnson acknowledged that Stockton would pass him some day.
"That's generous of him, but it's not something I'm going to worry about," said Stockton, when asked about Johnson's statement. "I'm just going to keep on playing and if I'm fortunate enough to get in the area with the likes of him, that would be a thrill."
After he passes Cousy sometime early in Saturday night's game with Denver, Stockton's next obstacles are Maurice Cheeks, who is seeing limited time with Atlanta (7,160 assists at All-Star break) and former Hawks great Lenny Wilkens (7,211), who now makes his home in Park City.
In the meantime Stockton will continue to do his best to ignore the assist record list.
"I don't look for it," he said. "Maybe at some point in time, I'll look back at it when it's all over . . . but not right now."