The Story Behind Stockton & Malone

guys, if they score, there's a game seven, if they don't for the second year in a row, they come out in six Stockton Harper's behind the screen, Harper got a piece of it. NBA hi

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is littered with the bones of great teams that simply existed. There are no teams big enough, iconic enough, memorable enough that could never get over the hump, perhaps no team fits that profile as famously as John Stockton and Carl Malone, who led the Utah jazz teams of the 1980s and '90s. , they had one of the best point guards, power forwards, head coaches and home-field advantages in basketball hi

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they made the playoffs 18 times in 18 seasons together they won 16 postseason series they reached two NBA Finals and didn't win any championship this is the story behind Stockton and Malone Jazz After five seasons in New Orleans, the Jazz moved to Utah in 1979, the team kept the same name and carnival color scheme even though it was no longer in the big easy situation, at least in part because there was not enough time for a name change after the measure passed.

It's hard to overstate how much fun it is. stock of those early Utah teams where the Jazz averaged fewer than 27 wins per year during the franchise's first four seasons in Salt Lake City, which understandably meant dismal attendance and revenue. Rumors of another relocation dominated the airwaves and the team even played a few home games in Las Vegas. during those restless few years to increase their income, making matters worse after selecting dominique wilkins third overall in the 1982 nba draft, the jazz traded the outstanding human who wanted no part of what utah would become in one of the worst deals in league history, the only one.

The reason that draft day mistake wasn't talked about more over the years was because the jazz actually started to turn things around with general manager frank laden proving he had coaching chops too, adrian filling the skillfully shooting and Mark Eaton manning the middle, the Jazz became a 45-winning second-round playoff team in 1983-84 and then drafted a point guard named John Stockton 16th overall in the legendary 84 class. Stockton came off the bench for a 500 team that once again lost in the second round in 84 85 and the Jazz proceeded to select Louisiana Tech power forward Carl Malone 13th overall in the subsequent draft, although Stockton's selection was unpopular in Salt Lake City and Malone was joining what was, at best, a mediocre franchise without jazz fans and the rest of the association knowing it. his two pillars of the next two decades, Malone arrived in the NBA much faster than Stockton, becoming a starter as a rookie and a 20-and-10 in his second year, but the Jazz really began to take off when Stockton was handed the reins with delicacy.

He had been traded the year before and aging point guard Ricky Green was proving ineffective as the 1987-88 season began after starting only 45 of his first 249 games for the Jazz Stockton got the start in the fourth game of the '87 campaign. -88. He did not relinquish his duties as Utah's starting point guard until he retired in 2003 after averaging approximately 7 points and 7 assists with average efficiency during his first three seasons. Stockton exploded to average 14.7 points, 13.8 assists and three steals on 64.5 percent true shooting in his first. year as a starter, he led the league in assists for the first of nine consecutive seasons and wasn't even his own team's best player, as the 24-year-old Malone earned his first of 14 All-Star Game appearances while averaging roughly 28 points and 12 rebounds for a 47-win Jazz team, although the Jazz had won a pair of playoff series in the previous five years, the 1988 postseason felt like a breakthrough when Utah earned its first series win with

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and

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playing together and then pushed the eventual champions, the lakers, to a In game seven of the Western Conference semifinals it looked like the Jazz were on the fast track to title contention.

Utah was even better in 88-89 and finished with a franchise-record 51 wins despite getting a new head coach less than a quarter of the way into the campaign, Leiden, citing exhaustion, relinquished his responsibility in bench 17 games into the season when he transitioned to team president and promoted assistant coach Jerry Sloane to the top job on the bench, sometimes in the NBA you feel like a loaded dog, he said at the time. you age seven years in one the pressure is intense it's time to spend my time with jazz and their new head coach thought it was his moment utah got 40 and 25 with sloan and their two emerging stars seemed quite comfortable playing with him

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averaged 29 and 11.

Stockton made his second consecutive All-Star team and for the second of 11 times both made an NBA team in the same year. Eaton even joined them in the all-star game and won his second defensive player of the year award. as they would get used to all the praise of the regular season, however, Stockton Malone and all of Utah would soon get used to the bitter disappointments of the postseason. The first real playoff choke job of the Stockton Malone Sloan era came in '89, when the second-seeded Jazz were swept. the first round by seventh seed golden state, although

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and malone posted eye-catching numbers, history repeated itself the following season, stockton enjoyed a career year in 1989-90 averaging 17 points and 14.5 assists, although he also missed four games for the first time in Meanwhile, his career Malone continued to fill the stat sheet.

Sloane kept the Jazz running like clockwork and 55 wins later, Utah entered the playoffs as No. 4c. They then lost to Phoenix in the first round, this time in five games on a Kevin Johnson jumper. with less than a second left in the series five three-point shooters in the ball game for the sons mcgee return to kevin johnson and he scores and there are eight tenths of a second left phoenix in kevin johnson's basket leads us by two although the two The team's superstars still produced overall, both Stockton and Malone saw their efficiency drop in the series with Stockton shooting 3-for-11 in the game-winner, taking the entire fifth game.

As happened so many times in the professional world of What Have You Done for Me Lately? sports stockton malone and jazz went from being the young darlings of the nba to being labeled as postseason chokers, although the ultimate prize remained elusive, jazz worked hard to shed that label as the '90s wore off At the fifth seed, the Jazz returned the favor to the fourth seed, Phoenix in the first round of the '91 playoffs beating the Suns three games to one before being eliminated by Clyde Drexler's Blazers in the second round despite needing five full games to beat these seventh-seeded Clippers in the first round at 92, a second seed with 55 wins.

The Jazz team eventually reached the franchise's first Western Conference Finals that year, where they again came up short against Portland. The Jazz also moved from the small Salt Palace to the Delta Center that season and then hosted the following year's All-Star game in 1993, where Stockton and Malone shared. All-Star Game MVP honors plus a 47-win season in 92-93 in which the Jazz lost in the first round to a surging Sonics team. Utah made deep playoff runs throughout the '90s all the way to the Western Conference at the time. It was death taxes and jazz playing until at least May as Stockton and Malone's pick and roll teams die and they did it with an ever-evolving supporting cast Jeff Malone came from Washington in the early '90s to provide some much-needed secondary scoring and then moved to Philadelphia for Jeff Hornacek a few years later, veteran Jazz forward, exhaustive Bailey, was traded to Minnesota for Tyrone Corbin's defensive swingman and Michael Jordan's eventual nemesis, Byron Russell was drafted in Felton Spencer was eventually brought in to replace Agent Eaton as the team's starting center, although an Achilles injury during the 94-95 season led to the end of Spencer's tenure in Salt Lake City.

Fun fact when the Jazz finally traded Spencer to Orlando in the summer of '96. They acquired the draft pick that would become Andre Kirolenko three years later, anyway Greg Ostertag was selected in 1995 and eventually replaced Spencer at center The team's starter, only to eventually be replaced by Greg Foster, eventually reserve guard Shandon Anderson was selected in '96 to solidify Sloane's rotation. No matter who came and went, though the story remained largely the same. The 53-win Jazz lost to the eventual champion Rockets in the 1994 Western Finals. The 60-win Jazz learned to never underestimate the heart of a champion when they lost in the first round of the 1995 playoffs to the eventual champion rockets that included a much debated decision in the final seconds of the winner takes all game 5. 11.5 assists, not numbers like John Stockton's today, they still have to try to make the basket, it's 3.5, there's a lot At some point you can still miss again, you can even steal on the incoming play, we'll see how they play it, but I think Stockton is looking for a partner, no, no, commit the foul and we go to the other end with two. seconds to play in 1996, the 55 win the Jazz lost in the conference finals, once again rallied from a 3-1 deficit against Sean Kemp and Gary Payton, led the Sonics before losing a game 7 heartbreaker in Seattle.

The breakthrough came through sort of 1996. Season 97 was magical with Salt Lake City sporting new and soon-to-be iconic jerseys that paid homage to the mountain ranges of Utah. The Jazz led the conference with 64 wins, which still stands as a franchise record. Malone took home the first of his two MVP awards. Jazz ripped off two separate winning streaks and finished the season with a point differential that still ranks in the top 25 of all time. Utah finished seven games ahead of second-place Seattle in the West standings and then went 11-3 in the first three rounds of the playoffs that culminated.

In the biggest opportunity in franchise history, John Stockton sends the Utah Jazz to the NBA Finals Nearly a decade and a half of postseason demons were exercised when Stockton's Game 6 buzzer-beater eliminated Houston in the western finals of '97, propelling the jazz to their first NBA finals appearance unfortunately for the jazz the team waiting for them in the finals the defending champions chicago bulls turned out to be one of the few teams in history that was actually able to beat them a year after Their record-breaking season of 72 championship wins, the Bulls came back to the 1997 finals as a juggernaut with 69 wins and the fifth-best point differential of all time, the Jazz rallied for the challenge and had the ball with time running out. in a close game before disaster struck, giving us a taste of the anguish that awaited Utah.

The next two Junes Malone, whose postman nickname was born from the idea that he always delivered on the court, went to the foul line to make two shots with nine seconds left in a tied game. That's when Scottie Pippin whispered to MVP that he was a 75.5 free throw shooter that season and had already made three of four that night he missed both setting the stage for a Michael Jordan game-winner just moments later, one when Pippin revealed what he had said to Malone moments earlier at the free throw line. would stain the hall of fame the great man's legacy forever did you say something to carl malone right before he took those free throws you are close friends what did you say to him to throw him off?

I said the postman still hasn't delivered on Sunday Malone and the Jazz showed their resilience by rallying from a two-nothing series deficit with home wins in games three and four, giving Utah another chance to win. gold in game five. The final was still contested in a 2-3-2 format at the time. meaning the Jazz, who were 48 and three at home, including 10-0 in the playoffs up to that point, were primed to take the Bulls to the brink of elimination before the series returned to Chicago, plus Jordan showed up in Game 5 in horrendous form. Whether it was the flu, a good old-fashioned hangover, or food poisoning from a tainted pizza, the Jazz even built a 13-point lead through one quarter, but we know how the rest went.

He turned the clock short to seven. Jordan shot yes between Malone's game one. shots and an eight-point lead with 10 19 remaining in the flu game, the Jazz will likelyfelt they should have won the series in five games, instead they returned to Chicago facing elimination in game six, where the Bulls would end the series after recovering. Coming back from a nine-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, a frantic finish to Game 6 also included rookie Anderson missing a reverse layup with 30 seconds left in a tied game that the Utah Hoopheads maintain to this day was the result of Pippin pulling the hoop.

Jazz returned virtually intact the following year, confident that they had what it took to beat the Bulls; In fact, the 11 players who played the most for Utah in 96-97 returned for the 97-98 campaign under the continued tutelage of Sloan, who somehow never won a coach of the year award behind Malone's dominance and jeff hornacek, the jazz posted a respectable 11-7 start to the year despite stockton being sidelined with a knee injury when their star point guard returned to the lineup, utah finished the season with a 51 and 13 tears to tie Chicago with a league-leading 62 wins, the Jazz once again strolled down the west side of the playoffs with an 11-3 record that culminated in a conference finals sweep of an early team of Shaq and Kobe Laker Utah entered to the final at home The home court advantage this time thanks to a sweep of the Bulls in a two-nothing season series and a huge rest advantage that swept the Lakers gave the Jazz 10 days of rest before the first game , while the Bulls were forced to go the distance in a 7-game Eastern Finals against the Pacers it's easy to forget more than two decades later that the Jazz were the favorites in this Finals rematch that was reinforced when a win in overtime in the first game gave Utah its seventh consecutive victory since its second-round series against San Antonio.

The team that beat you last year and won the title, Malone said at the time, and in this business sometimes you get your wish. He should have been careful what he wished for, as in that game, a win would be Utah's pinnacle. Two-decade rise through the NBA hierarchy Malone's Finals resume continued to take a beating as the series progressed, He shot 5 for 16 in Game 2 as the Jazz blew another 4th quarter lead and then came the embarrassment of Game 3 as the Bulls whipped the Jazz for 42 points. Utah's 54 points for the game were the lowest scoring performance of a team in any game in the shot clock era up to that point, in the span of four nights between Games 1 and 3, the Jazz had gone from finally being able to see the top of the mountain to being caught in an avalanche after losing game 4 Utah fought back from elimination in game 5 to send the series back home needing to win both games, but a fourth-quarter heartbreak awaited Jazz fans in game six double, hit and robbed here. chicago comes 17 seconds 17 seconds of the seventh game or championship number six good chicago open with the lead stopped harper got a part it comes off the chicago bulls have won their sixth nba championship and it is their second 3p as much as the balletic synchronization of the game of stockton and malone left an undoubted legacy of excellence, combined with memories of malone's missed free throws, anderson's missed layup, and russell's screams as he pushed in jordan's final jumper, jazz always managed shooting himself in the foot while jordan swept the other stage, the franchise's consecutive final losses against one of the most legendary figures in sports and Starrius' teams cemented jazz as the definitive heels that simply exist for the main characters and heroes have someone to beat, always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

The players around Stockton and Malone turned and vanished like characters in a building block. The two stars along with Sloane continued to work hard for years only to fail again and again. Malone won a second MVP award in the shortened campaign for the 1999 lockout and the Jazz finished tied with the eventual champion Spurs atop the overall standings, but lost to Portland in the second round of the playoffs. The Blazers, who had a strong core of Rasheed Wallace, Arvida Sabonis, Damon Stodomier and Steve Smith, acquired Pippin before the '99-2000 season and then won. a 55-win Jazz team in the Western Semifinals again that spring and that was effectively the end of the road for the two cornerstones of the Utah franchise when the Jazz advanced beyond the first round again seven years later, Malone and Stockton were long gone.

Stockton retired in 2003. And later that year, a 40-year-old Malone played his final season in Los Angeles, where cruelly the big night of his career ended with his favorite Lakers losing a lopsided final against Detroit, Jazz has featured many competitive teams since then, but advanced to the conference finals only once in the first 19 years after the Stockton and Malone era, that era provided so many memories for Utah, but those Jazz teams are also the poster child for good teams that They were never good enough for dynasties that in the end had everything but the rings. creates a legacy that is difficult to reconcile, on one hand the jazz made the finals in the only two seasons that utah finished with the number one seed, but in 18 seasons together, stockton and malone also lost eight different playoff series as The top-ranked team, the All-Star duo combined for 24 All-Star Game appearances, 25 on all-NBA selections and nine knots on all-defensive teams, while combining to miss a total of just 32 games in those 18 years together, only the Lakers won more regular season games during Stockton Malone's time as teammates. and only the lakers and bulls won more playoff games during that time, but chicago and the angels combined to win 11 of those 18 championships, while the jazz was shut out when it mattered most, so sustained excellence or failure sustained consistency models or consistent choke toughness only one team can win every year, but how come none of those jazz teams emerged as the last team standing even once in the end?

The Stockton Malone Jazz teams serve as the ultimate test case for one of sports' biggest questions: players, fans, and organizations. Overall, the trade was a sustained success for nearly two decades of memorabilia for just one precious championship ring. Thanks for seeing it. If you like this video and want to see more content like this, be sure to hit the subscribe button.