No need to alter the marquee just yet. The Stockton & Malone Show should play on.
Jazz guard John Stockton, his 39th birthday just around the corner, revealed Wednesday his plans to play at least one more NBA season beyond the current one.
"My intention is to play next year," Stockton, the NBA's all-time assists and steals leader, said prior to the Jazz's practice for their Delta Center showdown Thursday night with Western Conference-rival Portland.
Stockton did not, however, commit to anything beyond the 2001-2002 season.
"I have no limits there," he said. "Every time you step on the floor, it could be your last game, so I guess I wouldn't put a minimum, I wouldn't put a maximum. I just kind of keep moving along."
Stockton, who is in the final season of a two-year, $22 million contract, did attach requisite qualifiers to his declaration: "So many things can still happen," he said. "I mean — health, family, anything."
But his intention clearly is to return for an 18th season with the Jazz.
"That's my plan," said Stockton, who turns 39 Monday. "I don't know how else I could answer that."
Stockton spoke matter-of-factly, as if this has been his plan all along.
And it probably has.
But he has never knowingly made a public commitment to playing beyond this season and continuing his running act with 16-season Jazz vet Karl Malone, who previously disclosed intentions to honor at least the two seasons that remain on his current deal.
The news, if they didn't know already, must come as relief to those in the Jazz organization who expected Stockton would wait until the off-season to reveal future plans.
Even Jazz owner Larry H. Miller was unsure what Stockton would do when, last month, the organization signed long-time head coach Jerry Sloan to a three-year contract extension. Miller was hopeful and confident Stockton would return, but his uncertainty then paralleled that of the past two off-seasons, when the intensely private Stockton kept everyone guessing.
"We sat down in my office (Stockton had no agent), and we talked about stuff, generally, for a while," Miller said of their meeting a couple of summers ago. "Then I said, 'Okay, let's talk about this.' John and I can talk about everything, but when you get to that, it's a little more awkward, you know? And that's understandable. He said, 'Look, I'm not Karl. But I'm still pretty good.'
"The point (is) we reached a deal on a two-year salary level for John, but his thing was, 'I'm only doing a two-year deal because I don't want to go through this again because the year goes by so quick. If, at the end of this year,' which would have been last season, 'you can't look at me and tell me that you want me back, and I can't look at you and say, I want to come back, and I can't answer the bell . . . then the second year (this current season) is off.' I said, 'Fair enough.' "
The day Utah was eliminated by Portland from last season's NBA playoffs, Miller headed to the Delta Center. He arrived around the same time Stockton was leaving an end-of-the-season meeting with Sloan and Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor.
"I said, 'Well, how did it go?' " Miller said. "And he said, 'Oh, fine.' I said, 'How long were you in there?' He said, 'Five minutes,' or something. I said, 'Did they ask you about next year?' And he said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'What did you say?' He said, 'I told them I had to talk to you.'
"Now, I'm not kidding you; it went just like this.
"And I said, 'Okay.' And I said, 'Do you want to do it now?' He said, 'Sure.' Then he said, 'Okay, do you want me back?' I said, 'I sure do.' I said, 'Do you want to come back, and can you come back?' He said, 'Yes, and yes.' And we had a deal. It was just that simple."
Miller trusts it will be similarly simplistic a few months from now: "We'll have the same conversation. . . . What he said is, "Look, I don't want to be the old guy who hangs on . . . (But) if we can be competitive, and if I'm healthy . . . then I'd like to come back for at least one more year.' "
The 46-20 Jazz are competitive, pushing San Antonio for top seed in the West as they prepare to play a Portland team that has won two-of-three meetings this season. Stockton, coming off a Tuesday victory over Detroit in which he scored nine of a team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, is going as strong as ever, ranked second in the NBA in assists per game and first in 3-point-shooting percentage. And he certainly is healthy, joining Jacque Vaughn and Danny Manning as the only Jazz players appearing in all 66 games this season.
It's understandable, then, that Stockton feels so good about playing next season. Age, after all, is no barrier.
"You are what you are," he said, "and I can live with it, whatever (birthday) it is."
Even the next one after Monday — the one that will make him a 40-year-old NBA point guard, if he indeed plays another season — stirs no fear.
"I've probably considered myself 40 for a long time," Stockton said, "The number doesn't bother me."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com