We had talent. Starting with The Mailman, I think he is the guy we all played off of. He was the guy nobody could stop. He was the guy – John Stockton
SALT LAKE CITY — Many members of the Utah media affectionately refer to them simply as "The Statues."
Their names, of course, are John Stockton and Karl Malone, whose bronze likenesses stand proudly outside Vivint Arena.
They're Utah's beloved Dynamic Duo — the selfless, tough-minded point guard with tremendous court vision and the powerful locomotive of a power forward they called "The Mailman" because of the way he always delivered.
They're undeniably the two greatest players in the history of the Utah Jazz franchise and, quite frankly, nobody else even comes close.
So when the time came this week to honor Utah's 1996-97 team that finally reached the NBA Finals for the first time ever, Jazz fans couldn't help but conjure up a flood of fond memories for the team's two longtime cornerstones.
And, of course, when it comes to that season, it all starts with "The Shot" — Stockton's clutch last-second 3-pointer in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals at Houston, giving the Jazz a dramatic 103-100 victory.
Indeed, NBC broadcaster Bill Walton famously uttered "Uh-oh" as the decisive play unfolded, and his broadcast partner, Greg Gumbel, loudly declared: "John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals!"
That 1996-97 team accomplished a lot, piling up a 64-18 regular-season record, still the best in franchise history, on its way to winning the Midwest Division title.
They rolled past both Los Angeles teams, the Clippers and Lakers, in the playoffs before beating Houston for their first Western Conference championship, going on to lose to the Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in six games in the '97 NBA Finals.
Those team members who gathered here this week have many great memories of that glorious time, memories that they hold close to their hearts.
"The shot that gets us to the Finals, I think, is what sticks out in everybody's mind," Stockton said Wednesday at Zions Bank Basketball Center, citing key fourth-quarter contributions by Bryon Russell and Greg Ostertag in that game. "Karl set a thunderous screen over there and I had a really good, long look at a 3-point shot to win it.
"Everybody was contributing and it was so much fun, and the shot just culminated the whole deal and got us where we had all dreamt to be. ... We'd lost in the conference finals three times, I think, before we finally broke through. That's a lot of knocking your head against the wall to try to accomplish something, and yet we did.
"... So we experienced a lot of disappointment, and when we did finally break through, I think we all had that sense of relief, that sense of wow, what effort it took to get over that hurdle. And we wanted to make the best of that.
"We exorcised some demons when we beat Houston down there. Houston had beaten us a number of times in the playoffs, just last-second shots or whatever," he said. "... We exorcised our own demons and we got over a couple of huge, huge hurdles that had eluded us before."
Stockton, the NBA's all-time leader in both assists and steals, said "The Shot" was one he'd practiced countless times as a kid. And all that practice paid off.
"You grow up, you're out there on the court by yourself, and you're always saying '3 ... 2 ... 1 ...' like you see in the movies, and that's kinda how it is," he said. "I'd probably shot that shot a hundred times in my head, maybe a thousand as a kid, and you don't really think about it at the time.
"It's quiet (mentally shutting out all the noise in that moment), the opportunity was there, and all I could think of — and I do remember this — was 'Follow through. Finish the shot.' And so that I did.
"And normally my shot's a little quirky and weird anyway," Stockton said, "but that one followed through and snapped through and it found its mark. So it was a good day."
Stockton averaged 14.4 points and 10.5 assists per game that season. But he credited Malone, his famed running mate who unfortunately missed Wednesday's team reunion due to other obligations, for being the key man in the Jazz lineup and said Jerry Sloan's tremendous, no-nonsense coaching style is really what helped make the team so successful.
After all, Malone averaged 27.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game that season en route to winning his first of two NBA Most Valuable Player awards. He ranks No. 2 on the NBA's career scoring list with 36,928 points and is No. 7 all-time in rebounding.
"We had talent," Stockton said. "Starting with The Mailman, I think he is the guy we all played off of. He was the guy nobody could stop. He was the guy.
"And we had other guys that were extraordinarily talented that allowed themselves to fit into roles for the sake of the team, for the sake of each other."
One of those guys was shooting guard Jeff Hornacek, who averaged 14.5 points and 4.4 assists per game that season. Like Stockton and Malone, his jersey hangs from the rafters of Vivint Arena.
"I played against them for so many years," Hornacek, now the head coach of the New York Knicks' team that faced the Jazz on Wednesday night. "And then I finally got a chance to play with them and it was so easy to play with those guys because they knew how to play the game. We could all kind of nod our head and give a look of the eyes and everybody knew what we were gonna do.
"They're two guys obviously Hall of Fame guys that know how to play and made the game easy.
"Probably just like everybody else here in Utah, it's John's shot that he made to finally get us to the Finals," he said of his best memory of that time. "That was a big deal obviously for the whole state and for us as players. None of us had gotten there (before)."
Phil Johnson, Sloan's longtime assistant coach, said Stockton and Malone were somewhat unique among NBA players in that they were so singularly minded and rarely, if ever, missed a game.
"It just doesn't happen very often where you have two guys that are so committed to what they do," he said. "It was interesting to watch them over the years because they almost competed to see who would be in better shape when they came in in the fall.
"They were both so competitive and wanted to win. They obviously had different personalities and that type of stuff, but it was an unbelievable experience to coach 'em."
Fellow assistant coach Kenny Natt marveled at how Stockton and Malone refused to take a night off.
"Those guys played through injuries," he told 1280-AM The Zone earlier this week. "They were really conscious about not letting the opponent see any weakness in them in any way. Tape it, hide it, whatever you have to do to get me back out there, I don't want anyone to understand or to see that I'm suffering in any way.
"They played through everything, even in practices. You would think they'd want to sit out, right, playing so many minutes, but they would never take those days off like that."
Small forward Bryon Russell learned a lot from the team's two determined big guns.
"They set the standard for all of us, and they set it pretty high," he said. "... I didn't think of any of those guys as my teammates; I thought of them as my brothers, as family."
Backup forward/center Antoine Carr, the "Big Dog" who brought so much fire and energy off the bench, said Malone's tremendous work ethic set a great example for him.
"It was a great experience for me," he said. "It taught me one way of working out and training and getting my body ready to go. It showed me if you wanted to be a great player, how to do that, so I can take what I've learned from them and pass it on down to your younger generation.
"I was the dog, and the dog had to protect The Mailman. Jerry told me, 'Antoine, come out and do what you do best. Work hard, work for loose balls, do what you do, beat up people inside, and I tried my best to do that.
"If you touch any of my guys, that's 1 through 15, you will face the dog — even to this day," Carr said. "Those are my guys, you don't mess with 'em."