SALT LAKE CITY — This week, John Stockton spent over an hour with media in celebration of the 1996-97 Utah Jazz season, when the team first qualified for the NBA Finals and had its winningest season ever. Here's the best of what Stockton said.

Stockton on his friendship with Malone

"First of all, personally, we met at the Olympic trials in '84 and didn't know each other from Adam. Kinda struck up a little friendship, to say the least. And then he gets drafted by us, and I thought 'that's kind of odd luck.' This great player is coming our way, and I know him; we have this relationship already.

"And then I remember playing a game with the Houston Rockets, and Ralph Sampson was guarding Karl and his 7-foot-4 frame was draped around Karl from the bottom side. So Karl's at the block, and his arms, there's just no way to throw him the ball. And I'm just getting ready to reverse the ball, and for some reason, I'm going to throw it right behind Ralph Sampson's head.

"I just threw it, and in a blink of an eye, Karl turned from a smothered position and hunkered down, and he spun around quickly and caught the ball right behind Ralph Sampson's head and he scored it. And I was like, 'Oh my goodness, this is something. How did he read that? How did he catch that? Why did any of it happen?' And I knew there was something special there. We got to explore a lot of options from that point forward."

Stockton on rest

"I think a big part of the game is your preparation and your toughness, both mental and physical toughness, and I don’t know that it’s always tested if you’re rested.

"Maybe you’re not as talented as another team, but you can outwork them. And if you can’t outwork them over a short period of time, maybe you can outwork them for a longer period of time when you have extended rest, you have extended timeouts. It’s just one factor out of a game that’s taken out. So I don’t like any of that stuff.

"I remember going to a professional baseball game when I was still with the Jazz, over the summer, and I went to see one guy in particular, I won’t name his name, and he sat out. That was a day of rest for him, and I was incensed. I’ve never rooted or particularly cared for that guy since. Fair or unfair, it’s just what I believe in. I think people pay to see their favorites. They pay to see guys. They pay to have the best competition you can put on the court on any given night out there, whoever that is.

"If you’re hurt, that’s one thing. Then the best 11 guys go lay it out there and anything short of that ... I think you can say science, you can say championships, you can say whatever. I think we have a duty to be present and lay our best out there every night.

"I hope the league figures out a way to fix it because I’d be mad if I paid to go see one particular guy and the Mailman doesn’t play. I don’t know. That doesn’t sound very appealing to me.

"And then what if a team is trying to make the playoffs and another team’s trying to make the playoffs, and a great team sits their guys against one, they win. Plays all their guys against the other one, they lose. I mean, where’s the justice in that? So, I don’t really buy into the science part.

"I'm glad I played in the era I played in. There's a lot about today that would be difficult for me, I think."

Stockton on the old purple mountain jerseys

"I remember Larry asking me about changing jerseys, and I said "Nope." I know my opinion, I didn't want to change anything. The Yankees don't change their logo was kind of my attitude, so why would the Jazz change theirs?

"Anyway, he took my advice and put it where it mattered, I guess, and out came this (Mountain) logo. And years later, you look back on it, and that's the logo that really we went to the finals in and had some of our greatest experiences and memories as players. I'm kind of torn now, but I do like the originals, they're pretty nice."

Stockton on the pick and roll

"There's no resemblance, how the pick and rolls changed. It's nearly impossible to guard now with the rules. The rules have changed so, so drastically in how you can guard them and how you're allowed to screen. It's as if the rules are designed to not to be able to guard it. So, way different. Way different.

"They'd get their bodies on you, No. 1., bodies and hands. You could guard the dribbler with your hands, now you can't really make any contact. The screeners had to be still, and now it's a little bit more European-style. They throw their hips out, they roll into it, there's a lot of different things. But the biggest thing is you can't be touched. So as you're coming into the screen, there's nobody altering your own position. You have a pretty much free ride."

Stockton on 'The Shot'

"It was a play we ran and often. Bryon Russell read the cut perfectly, Karl set a thunderous screen over there, and I had a really good look at a long 3-point shot to win it. The details of what it could have been was left up to us, but the setup was something we'd done 50 times.

"We exorcised some demons when we made that shot."

Stockton on Jerry Sloan

"Jerry definitely is a father figure for most of us. He’s also a mentor. He’s also a teacher. He’s also a guy that eliminated the nonsense, things that you don’t need to worry about. He allowed us to focus on what’s important. He shared his love for this game and made us understand that it isn’t about us. It isn’t about how much jewelry you can get out of a deal or how many standing ovations. It’s about playing and what happens between those lines.

"His respect for this game of basketball and for the NBA, and how he wants it to succeed at a level that I don't think most people understand and his care for us as individuals, that's been true all throughout. You can see by the way guys talk to him.

"He means the world to me. That sounds shallow. To get any more into it, you start crying and all of those other things. He's just a very good man that I'm proud of. I'm proud to have him as my coach, my friend, as a friend to my kids. He's a special man."

Stockton on Michael Jordan

"I appreciate Michael Jordan. Whether it was in the finals or his preparation for preseason games, or his preparation for everything. I thought he carried the yoke of the league, and wore that responsibility very well over my entire career. I have great respect for him. The championship is just another part of that. You knew when you were playing him that you were playing a warrior that was going to give his best, and if you succeeded, then you'd beaten the best. And that's why we played him."

Stockton on watching his kids play

"Playing, you don't notice the nerves. You get into your focus mode and you're concentrating on what you're doing and you can have an impact on what happens. As a coach, coaching your kids, you have some impact on the game. Your comments can have some weight, they can change what happens to the game.

"As a parent sitting up in the stands, it's probably the worst. You're sitting up there, and you still have the same nervousness or anxiety about it, and you want for your children to do better than even you did. And yet you have no say in it, you have nothing you can do other than sit there and watch.

"I'm never calm inside when I'm watching the kids."

Stockton on the current Jazz

"I don't get to see them every day. We do get them up in Spokane, and I see them on ROOT every once in a while, and that's fun. They have talent. They have youth, and I think the sky is the limit for them if they continue to build. It's never an easy process. People talk a lot: 'Hey, they're one piece away.' I don't even know if they are one piece away. Add experience and time, and if the right commitments are made, anything can happen."

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