Top 81 Quotes & Sayings by John Stockton
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete John Stockton.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Just because everybody else does something isn't a good enough reason to do anything.
I think everybody should have the attitude that you can't allow yourself to be hurt. You avoid a lot just with that attitude.
I guess I'd rather be comfortable and play well because I'm comfortable than to get recognition and play someplace where I wouldn't be comfortable and wouldn't enjoy myself.
The game's a beautiful game when five guys go out there and give something of themselves so that you can win.
My brother thundered me in everything most of my life. He was a great carrot out in front of me. All I wanted to do, ever, was beat him at anything.
Struggles are what made everything worth while.
I want my kids to have a life like I did growing up. The greatest gift I was given in life was from my parents. Though I can't match them, I'd like to be that kind of parent.
I don't like to give in to injuries. I don't like to use them as excuses. Everybody has them.
Depending on the point in the game and what's necessary, if you can deliver the play, whatever that is - heck, if it's a screen - and you get a guy open, and he scores a big basket for you, that gives me as much of a charge as anything.
I haven't played quarterback since eighth or ninth grade. I didn't see it get much attention when I completed a pass then.
With kids and all the other activities around the house, I'm finding it harder to give my full attention to basketball.
I think I've preserved most of my private life, and I think that's still important for me, and that's still important for my family.
I never consciously thought about going all the way through the 'Gonzaga farm system,' but that's the way it happened.
I'm not a cerebral player. When I'm out on the floor, I try to play.
You never think about being wide open. I don't know if I can describe the feeling. Tremendous.
I have a great respect for people that write. I don't know how they do it every day... or do novels that they have to use their minds instead of just their memories. It's tough duty.
I didn't want to get caught up in the mind-set that, 'Wait a minute, I'm ahead of Magic. I better slow down.'
You have a different personality in front of the world than you do in front of your pals at home. I like to keep them separate.
I had been told I might be drafted in the fourth round. 'Great,' I said at the time.
Usually for the last play, everyone goes helter-skelter. They go to the wrong spots. They don't do the right thing.
I think records are irrelevant, but I'm being approached about it all the time. If I could avoid it, that would be great.
My impression is that the NBA always precluded anything else.
I never thought I'd make it in the NBA, so everything else is gravy.
Essentially, when you join a team, you're making a commitment to your team. You can't take that lightly.
Sometimes you're your own worst critic.
It's always in a cycle. One set of plays will work really well for a time, and then defenses figure it out, and you go to something else.
I don't care if people even discuss what I did. But if anyone is ever sitting around the kitchen table talking about my career, I hope they say they enjoyed watching me play. That's good enough.
Once I came to Salt Lake City, I didn't want to go anywhere else. It was home sweet home for me.
I've been lucky to have great coaching, great teammates, and a desire to keep getting better. That, slowly over time, helped me grow from an average high school player to the NBA.
I don't judge my performance on how many assists I have or how many points I have.
I know my first years sitting on the bench, largely behind Rickey Green, was a great learning tool for me.
I have an ego like everyone else. I want to be recognized as a good ballplayer.
The key word is 'control.' I have to get to the point where I can do it like Magic does. That means penetrating, scoring more, taking over on offense once in a while, increasing my range on the outside shot to open things up for the drive.
The West is tough. Great teams. Great records, top to bottom.
I don't crush the kids. But I do want them to know that they have to earn what they get. I'm not like Jimmy Piersall's dad or anything. I mean, I tell them I'm happy if they just do the best they can. My parents were that way with me.
Magic is the man. No one is in his class.
If you start chasing around trying to get steals for your own benefit, then you really put your defense at a disadvantage. It's not a big thing for me; if it happens, great.
I don't think about the record, because winning games has to be our focus, and if we lost focus thinking about that record, I would really regret it. How will I feel later on? People tell me it will mean a lot after I retire, for the kids and me. But to me, it's just a stat. It's something people enjoy talking about. Me? I just enjoy playing.
I really don't look at my accomplishments. I really don't think about myself much.
I was always the kid dribbling the ball on the sidelines, hoping someone would pick me. I'd go with my older brother to the gym or park, and when I went out there, I'd pass the ball so I could get picked again.
I really don't think of myself as the best player on the team.
I've played games where I thought I played one of my better games, and statistically, there's nothing there, and vice versa. I've never based how I feel about my performance on stats.
If I pass the ball to Karl Malone, he still has to make the shot, or nothing has happened.
I think I laid it all out there for 19 years, and you don't always achieve all the goals that you shoot for.
I love to play, and I appreciate the opportunity to be part of a good organization.
You can't afford to hop around and act like a kid when you have to get back on defense and worry about the other parts of the game. But at the end, when the buzzer sounds, you have the luxury of hopping around and looking foolish for a while.
Mostly, I go in the weight room and visit.
I just play. I'm not one to think about it. If I get one assist and we win, that's great. Otherwise, I could care less.
I was thinking back when Karl Malone and I, when one of us would be in the weight room early in the morning, and the other one wasn't there, the first comment to the other person would be, 'It's mighty lonely up here.'
I think there are a lot of ways to play the PG position. Scoring first is a way that works for them and their teams. I personally like to watch PGs that like to work for others.
I don't think you ever hear anybody shoot the last shot and say they didn't think it was in.
It's not win or die at my house. We're all competitive, but it's not the type to get stressed out by it.
I don't go home to parades.
I'm a bartender's son. Some things you never forget.
I heal quickly, and I stay in good shape, and I will stay in good shape.
I was just lucky to have a uniform.
To be a great player and a great scorer, you have to find ways to get yourself open and get shots off. It's a dog fight.
You can find advantages to being small.
When you're younger, you might make some shots you're not normally capable of, because you're more fluid, maybe stronger, maybe faster. As you get older, you learn not to take those crazy shots.
I try to exploit things against everybody; that's part of the game: beat the guy that guards me while you're beating their team.
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