re: Stockton vs. Isiah

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
There are a handful of the greatest players in history who never won a title because they had the distinction of playing in the same era as Michael Jordan. As a result, the true measure of their greatness is never fully appreciated. I call this group the “Victims of Jordan.”

In light of all the “All-Time Fives” craze circling, I thought it would be fun to put together an all-time Victims of Jordan (VOJ) team. These are all-time great players who didn’t win a title, largely because their best chances at a ring just happened to coincide with the time that Jordan was being a ring hog.

The head-to-head stats contain only postseason stats, and were obtained from Basketball-Reference’s “Head-to-Head” Play Index.

POINT GUARD: JOHN STOCKTON



Jordan vs. Stockton

John Stockton is so underrated that even the underratedness of his underratedness is underrated. I’m just going to repeat what I said about him in my Utah Jazz Starting Five piece because I’m not going to say it any better than I did there.

When you’re talking “true” point guards, John Stockton is the greatest of all time. No one in history has ever produced as many points as the man who dished dimes in three different decades. Either through scoring or passing he contributed to more than 51,323 points (points plus assists times two). That’s not even including the three-point assists he had. No one else has topped 50,000. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was second with 49,987.

And for a man who lived off the mid-range jumper, it’s just phenomenal that he boasts a career field goal percentage of 51.5. That’s higher than Tim Duncan or Hakeem Olajuwon. In fact, according to Basketball-Reference.com, only nine players in history have more points and a higher shooting percentage — and only three have a better effective field goal percentage.

Putting Stockton’s assist record in perspective is hard to do. He has 30.7 percent more than any other player, ever. He’s also the all-time leader in steals by 20.1 percent.

Of all the “major records” in the four big North American sports leagues (NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL), the only records that surpass the gulf between the all-time leader and the rest of the world is Wayne Gretzky’s gargantuan lead in assists and points in the NHL.

However, while Gretzky is nearly universally regarded as the greatest hockey player of all time, Stockton is often not even listed in the top 20 of many all-time lists. He’s easily one of the sport’s most underrated players.

If I could have any point guard in history to facilitate an all-time team, it would be Stockton. No one has ever been better and more consistent at running an offense.

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