John Stockton

The Utah Jazz retired point guard, John Stockton has retired, midway through Monday’s 76-45 loss to the New Orleans Homets.

Stockton begun his career with Jazz as an NBA player, was honored at halftime with a tribute that was attended by family, friends and teammates Karl Malone, Mark Eaton and Adrian Dantley.

As CBC Sports reports “Stockton averaged 13.1 points, 10.5 assists, 2.2 steals and 31.7 minutes in 1,504 games (1,300 starts) after Utah drafted him 16th overall out of Gonzaga in 1984.

Along the way, he set new NBA standards for seasons leading the league in assists (nine), most consecutive seasons leading in assists (nine), most assists in a single season (1,164 in 1990-91) and the highest assists-per-game average in a season (14.5 in 1990-91).

‘We started to move toward being a championship team when we picked up John Stockton,’ explained former Jazz head coach Frank Layden. ‘He became the catalyst to what this organization was going to be about for many years to come.’

Although Stockton helped the Jazz reach the playoffs in each of his 19 NBA seasons, he never hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy as league champion.

Stockton did, however, win gold medals with Team USA at 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Stockton is the sixth member of the Jazz to have a number retired, joining Layden (1) as well as players Pete Maravich (7), Jeff Hornacek (14), Darrell Griffith (35) and Eaton (53).”