- John Stockton, once media-shy, now shares strong opinions on various topics.
- Stockton criticizes NBA's load management and players switching teams for championships.
- He remains vocal against the COVID vaccine, impacting his Gonzaga game attendance.
SALT LAKE CITY — The recent death of Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame infielder Ryne Sandberg recalled a story Sports Illustrated did 32 years ago on three professional athletes all hailing from an outpost in eastern Washington.
The three, each close in age, grew up only miles apart at the time in a city of 177,000 and made the big time in their respective sports of football, basketball and baseball. The writer traveled to Spokane to focus on the hometown story of Sandberg, quarterback Mark Rypien and point guard John Stockton.
Family and friends were interviewed, each offering heartwarming memories of the three stars as children. Two of the three athletes also gave time to augment the story with anecdotes.
One of the three declined to the attention, staying true to himself at the time. Yeah, you guessed it, Stockton was the silent type.
Checking in the archives, here's a portion of the story on the Stockton of days gone by (the names Jack and Jeff refer to his father and close friend, respectively):
"Still, John Stockton would most likely rather lose in lawn darts than be interviewed. We would have asked him to confirm that, but he was too busy playing Sam-I-am to our green eggs and ham. Talk to us? He would not, could not, in the bar. He would not, could not, in his car. He would not, could not, at the gym. We would not, could not, speak to him. Jack, Jeff, his agents at ProServ, the publicity department of the Jazz and the Washington National Guard could not prevail upon him, either.
"Stockton has an aversion to making public appearances, on behalf of the Jazz or on behalf of Nike. He was supposed to appear in that poster with Rypien and Sandberg back in 1990, for a three-on-three basketball tournament, but he backed out of it when he thought organizers had lied to him about something or other. He never used to have ballboys pull his car around to the back of the Delta Center, where the Jazz play, but he does now, no longer willing to brave the parking lot."
But that was then. This is now.
In retirement, the all-time NBA assists and steals leader offers his opinion on a variety of subjects, some of which are downright controversial. Got a topic, ring him up.
Stockton is down on the NBA these days, saying the league has gone soft. This load management stuff rubs him wrong — can't blame him there, knowing he played all 82 games in 16 seasons.
"The thing that I see, I do think it's soft, where you can take like 20 days off," he told Basketball Network. "Can you image your dad coming, I'mma take a few weeks off. You know? Well, who is going to feed us then. These guys do it, and they are supposed to be examples and the league allows us."
Great points by the all-time great point guard. And there's more.
Via Apex Jones on social media platform X, Stockton criticized players switching teams in search of a championship. He labeled it riding a helicopter to the mountain top instead of grinding up from the bottom.
"I like where guys tighten their belt up and say ... let's go to work," he said. "We've just got to get better; we've got to play harder; we've gotta play smarter, instead of just huh, where's the grass greener."
Somewhere, in the great basketball arena beyond the horizon, Jerry Sloan is nodding his head in the affirmative.
There's also Stockton's strong stance against the COVID vaccine. He seemingly was all over media outlets expressing his thoughts on the matter, which led him to stop attending basketball games at his alma mater Gonzaga.
The bulldog in him remains intact. All these years later, he still won't back away from his beliefs.
Just ask him.
