Portal:Utah/Selected biography/9

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Bronze statue of John Stockton outside the Delta Center

John Stockton (born March 26, 1962) is a former professional basketball player. He spent his entire career (1984–2003) as a point guard for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Stockton is considered one of the NBA's greatest point guards ever. He averaged a career double-double, with 13.1 points and 10.5 assists per game. As of 2005, he held the NBA's records for career assists by a large margin (15,806) and career steals (3,265). He had five of the top six assists seasons in NBA history (the other belonging to Isiah Thomas). He holds the NBA record for the most seasons and consecutive games played with one team, and is third in total games played, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. He missed only 22 games during his career, 18 of them in one season.

Stockton appeared in 10 All-Star games, and was named co-MVP of the game in 1993 with Jazz teammate Karl Malone. He played with the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic basketball teams, known as Dream Teams I and II, the first Olympic squads to feature NBA players.

He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players In NBA History in 1996. Stockton's career highlight came in Game 6 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals, in which he hit the winning shot over Houston's Charles Barkley to send the Jazz to its first NBA Finals.