A special tribute today to J.Stockton. All of the
articles regarding his retirement have been about his class as an individual and
the manner in which he played the game. That's not what the Answerman is about.
The Answerman is about fantasy stats. For those stats, Stockton deserves tribute.
Stockton was accumulating stats well before I was participating in fantasy leagues.
He was doing it before there were basketball fantasy leagues. He was a fantasy
stud when it was just guys huddled at a lunch table adding up stats saying, "Another
good game from Stockton".
Stud is the only word to use for him.
He is a stud because of 10 straight season averaging 10+ assists a game. This
season no one broke 9 assists a game, he had two seasons of 14.
He is a stud because he averaged a fg% of .500, 12 times and his career fg% is
over .500. FG% is the most difficult category to draft guards on. They always
are shooting from the outside so they always bring down fg%. "Superstar" guards,
Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant both shot .450 this year. Stockton usually brought
your team fg% up.
He is stud because of his 3.1 steals in 1988-89 and never falling below 1.5 steals
in 19 seasons. Defensive demon, Ron Artest, averaged 2.3 this year. Stockton beat
that 8 times in his career.
He is a stud because of the magic number - 82. He played all 82 of his games 17
out of 19 times. Nothing is more important to a fantasy team than players playing.
Its a funny thing, we grow up thinking the biggest studs are the smooth talker
or showmen - John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever", James Bond, Same Malone.
When we grow up, we learn, the biggest stud is the guy who talks the least. He
keeps it down. Studs knows what they are packing, they don't need to show anybody.
Stockton taught us that everyday.
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