They're not nearly as big as what Karl Malone did on Tuesday, but a couple more NBA milestones may soon be realized.
Both belong to Jazz point guard John Stockton, who on Tuesday delivered the assist that led to Malone moving past Wilt Chamberlain for second place on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
Stockton goes into the 14-4 Jazz's meeting with Vancouver tonight needing 20 points for 17,000 in his career and 40 assists for 14,000.
With that in mind, Malone didn't need a pass from Stockton to get off this shot Wednesday:
"If he wanted to score — if he wanted to be a Steve Francis, or an Allen Iverson and all those guys — Stock could have averaged 20 points a game for a lot of years. If he wanted to," Malone, who abhors the new breed of NBA point guards who think about points ahead of passes. "But that's not his nature."
Malone believes Stockton — his teammate of 16 seasons, the NBA's all-time assists leader and a career 13-point scorer — is chief among a dying sort who can post solid stats sans the selfish play he associates with Houston's Francis and Philadelphia's Iverson.
"Isn't it neat," Malone said, "to see guys get milestones in the team concept?"