→ RonnieBrewer:我想Shaq那段話有被消音 09/06 19:27
推 CarlosBoozer:hmm.. 09/06 19:30
推 RonnieBrewer:Shaq如果和老史同隊,那他就不必抱怨隊友不傳球給他.. 09/06 20:39
推 monmo:中間那一大段都是大歐說的嗎 那他話還真不少~XD 09/06 22:22
原文連結www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_2469697已經失效, 所以在這做個備份
內容引用很多人的話來描述Stockton, 也談及他和一個16歲小女孩間的插曲..
段落也是我自己(其實就是阿摸)切割的, 也許會有誤
No ordinary star
On Monday, the Jazz retire the number of John Stockton, whom they consider as
good a person as he was a player
By Steve Luhm
The Salt Lake Tribune
He is a common man with uncommon skills, as a basketball player and a human
being.
The Average Joe son of a neighborhood tavern owner from Spokane, Wash., John
Stockton spent nearly two decades playing for the Utah Jazz and keeping anyone
who ventured too close at arm's length.
Too bad.
People would have liked what they never got a chance to see.
"Outside of a very few - his family and some close friends - nobody really
knows John," former Gonzaga coach Dan Fitzgerald said. "That's because John
wants it that way. But take it from me. As good as he was on the basketball
court, he's even a better person. And I'm serious about that."
"Just a great person and a great family man," said former teammate John Crotty.
"He lives as well-adjusted a life as anyone can, considering he's a Hall of
Fame player and those guys usually become larger than life. . . . John's just
a normal guy who happens to play basketball."
Former Jazz coach Frank Layden remembers traveling with Stockton in the early
years of his record-breaking NBA career.
"He would call me every Sunday we were on the road and get me up for mass,"
Layden said. "It didn't matter if we were in Milwaukee and it was 10 below
zero outside. It didn't matter if we played the night before. At 7:30, the
phone in my room would ring and it was John. 'Coach,' he'd say, 'I'll meet
you in the lobby. Saint Something-or-other is just down the street and mass
starts at eight.' "
Asked about his church-going routine, Stockton recoils as if someone has just
requested his home telephone number. He hesitates and wonders aloud whether
the issue is "too personal" to discuss. Finally, he relents.
"You owe who you owe," Stockton said, "and all you can offer is your time."
On Monday night, the Jazz will retire Stockton's No. 12 in a halftime
ceremony during the Utah-New Orleans game at the Delta Center.
Itwill be a bittersweet moment for owner Larry Miller, who claims one of the
questions he most frequently has to answer is, "What is John Stockton like?"
"I tell people, 'He's exactly how you hope he is,' " Miller said. "What you
see is what you get. There are no facades with John. As consistent as he was
as a player, he's that consistent as a person."
More often than he would like, Miller must respond to fans who criticize
Stockton's desire for privacy, which some incorrectly believe is indifference
toward those who want to embrace him.
"John gets knocked sometimes for not signing autographs and whatnot," Miller
said. "But he does many, many things for many, many people. He just doesn't
want anyone to know about them."
Exhibit A?
Late in Stockton's career, Miller received a call from a general manager of
his car dealership in Boulder, Colo.
"It was a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend deal," Miller said. "Maybe it was a
shirt-tail relation thing, I don't remember. But this guy knew a girl - she
was 16, I think - who was terminally ill. She had six months to live."
Miller's voice cracked.
"Anyway," he continued, "she was a John Stockton fan and my general manager
wondered if there was any way to get John to go see her. I told him, 'I don't
know. That's a lot to ask. These guys have lives, too. But I'll ask.' "
Miller did as promised.
"John asked me two questions," he said. "No. 1, would there be any media there?
I said, 'No.' No. 2, he asked if I would go with him. And I thought that
was fair."
A few days later, Stockton and Miller drove to West Point, Utah, to visit the
girl.
"John handled it so graciously," he said. "He was very comfortable. He greeted
her by name, signed some things for her, held her hand. They chatted for about
five minutes, which was all the little girl could take."
Two days later, Miller received a call from his employee in Colorado.
"I thought he was calling to say, 'Thanks a lot, I heard John was great,' "
Miller said. "But instead he called to tell me she had died. . . .
Now remember, they told us she had six months."
Miller informed Stockton their new friend had died.
"John's reaction was very Stockton-like," he said. "It illustrated a lot about
his character, I think. He just said, 'I'm really glad we went when we did.' "
Typical, say Stockton's friends.
"All the notoriety, all the All-Star games, all the broken records, it
doesn't matter," said ex-teammate Jim Les. "That stuff never changed him.
John never got caught up in the all the hype."
Probably because Stockton didn't hear it, or maybe because he does not believe
a basketball player should be held in higher esteem than a cop, a teacher,
a nurse or anyone else.
"John never felt anybody owed him anything, just because he played basketball,"
said Les, now the coach at Bradley University. "He just thought,
'This is my job. I'm no different than the accountant who goes to the office
every day. And when I'm not doing my job, I want to be left alone.' "
Said Fitzgerald: "He is an extremely misunderstood individual. He is an
extremely introverted and quiet guy. Very low-maintenance. That's been
construed by some idiots as aloofness or arrogance - whatever. But I'm here
to say, 'That's crap.' "
Added Jazz coach Jerry Sloan: "I've always said John Stockton is a better
person than player, and he was one of the great players of all-time. . . .
He's just a caring guy. I don't think I've ever known anyone who got more
upset if one of his teammates was traded - just because he cared about them."
Stockton does not need to know people in order to care about them.
Once, he approached Miller with the idea of completing some half-built
apartments near the Delta Center that had not been touched for years. The
large complex was located across from Pioneer Park, where Salt Lake City's
homeless often gather and sleep.
"It drove him nuts to see those unfinished units on one side of the street
and the homeless people on the other," Miller said. "He called and said, 'Why
don't we see what we can do something about this?' "
Miller discovered that - only days earlier - the property had been sold.
"I found it very interesting that John wanted to do that," Miller said. "I
mean, that would have been no small financial commitment."
Money matters to Stockton, just like it matters to everyone.
It certainly mattered after the Jazz made him their first-round pick in the
1984 draft. Utah offered Stockton the required minimum - $75,000 a year.
Stockton's agent advised against signing.
"I look back and say, 'What the heck was I doing?' " Layden said. "The bottom
line is, I tried to save the Jazz some money and it created hard feelings.
The kid held out."
Stockton disagrees.
"I didn't hold out, I just wasn't signed," he said. "There's a difference."
Stockton stayed in Spokane while the rest of the Jazz opened training camp.
"I would have played for free, and Frank probably knew that," Stockton said.
"But my agent said, 'You're a first-round pick. This is just part of the
process. They'll offer more.' "
Eventually, the Jazz offered $80,000.
"I thought for sure I was going to Europe," Stockton said. "But when 75
[thousand] went to 80, I was there the next day."
It didn't take Layden long to realize that the Jazz's money had been
well-spent.
Though he did not permanently replace incumbent starter Rickey Green for almost
three full seasons, Stockton's abilities were apparent to those around him.
Said Layden: "Rickey came up to me right away and said, 'Coach, you've got a
good one.' John was just so competitive. He had a tremendous, tremendous will
to win."
Les learned that lesson one day when the players were being tested for their
body-fat percentage.
"John kept running around asking everybody what their body fat was," Les said.
"He wanted to win the body-fat contest."
Said former Jazz employee David Fredman: "He would come in every year and
make sure he was the last one to take the treadmill test. He'd make the
doctors tell him how long he needed to go to win. I've always said John
probably wouldn't let his kids win at tiddlywinks."
Years ago, Fitzgerald was an outstanding amateur boxer.
"I told my daughter one night, 'John Stockton would have been an incredible
middleweight,' " he said. "Those are the kind of guys who win world
championships."
Stockton's determination and focus impressed some of the game's greatest
competitors.
"John is the type of player I've always admired," sad Larry Bird. "I think
we were similar. Neither one of us really looked like [NBA] players. We
looked more like high school players. But we had some success because of our
desire to win."
"What sets him apart," Magic Johnson once said, "is his toughness. John gets
knocked down, but he gets right back up."
Steve Kerr played in Chicago when the Bulls beat the Jazz in back-to-back NBA
Finals.
"I always admired John's demeanor," he said. "You could never tell if he was
playing well or not, if they were ahead or behind. He was always so
incredibly focused. And he was tough as nails. Every single game against John
was a war."
Said Miami's Shaquille O'Neal: "He was the last of the old-school great
guards. No flashiness. No crossover. No acting crazy. He was one of the last
ones to come down - bounce pass, chest pass. There [are] no more point guards
like him in the league. All we got now is 1-on-1 bull--."
Undoubtedly, Stockton will be slightly embarrassed when his jersey is raised
to the Delta Center rafters Monday night.
He played the game because he loved the game.
He did not play for records, accolades or millions of dollars.
He played for his coaches and his teammates.
He played to win.
"He's just one of those unusual guys you run across sometimes," Sloan said.
"He told me once, 'I'd rather slit my wrists than lose a ballgame' "
"John Stockton broke the mold," Miller said. "We'll see other great point
guards. But we'll never see another John Stockton."
In his book, "I Love Being the Enemy," Reggie Miller wrote about Stockton:
"Magic Johnson was a great set-up guy, too. But this guy sets [his teammates]
up perfectly. Everybody in Utah ought to give Stockton a bonus at the end of
the year. I mean it. He puts the ball in their lap every time. He sees things
that I don't see - that nobody in basketball sees. Thor, the guy has it all."
Maybe because Stockton gave his all.
HONORING JOHN
The Jazz will retire John Stockton's No. 12 in a halftime ceremony Monday
night during the Utah-New Orleans game at the Delta Center. It will be shown
on KJZZ, with the game beginning at 7.
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