John Stockton vs Steve Nash

Ignore all the references. This was a paper I wrote for school as well, so I had to document. Thanks!


The one holds the record for most steals and assists in a career. The other has won two MVP trophies.
One played with arguably the greatest power forward to ever bounce a basketball. The other has been teammates of Shaquille O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire, and Dirk Nowitzki, a few of the greatest players at their respective positions.
He made basketball relevant in an irrelevant state, while he turned a nation’s attention from hockey to hoops.
The older one has two Olympic Gold medals, while the younger recently lit the Olympic cauldron for the Vancouver Winter games.
The one has been inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame. The other? Someday soon.
Neither of them have won an NBA championship. One of them still has a chance.


The comparisons between point guards John Stockton and Steve Nash have been well documented and reiterated time and again, and that will probably never change. Ever. They are both very similar to one another, from their playing technique right down to their physical attributes and nice-guy demeanor. Many a sports columnist has tried to separate the two and convince the masses that one is better than the other. At first glance, this seems to be an insurmountable task. How can you choose between the two best point guards of all-time and list one above the other?
It’s easy, actually. The numbers don’t lie…….
John Stockton was born in Spokane, WA. His father owned a local sports bar and raised him with a blue-collar work ethic and tough-as-nails, never-say-die attitude. This didn’t only apply on the basketball court, but in the classroom and at home as well. He attended Gonzaga Prep High School, and later played college ball at Gonzaga University. In 1984, Stockton was selected 16th overall in the NBA draft by the Utah Jazz.

What first comes to mind about John Stockton are three unlikely attributes you usually don’t find in an NBA legend. His height (or lack thereof): He was listed as 6’1”-though he was more likely just over six feet-and played in a league stacked with giants. (the average height of an NBA player is 6’7”) (NBA.com, 2006-07 Player Survey) After this you’ll notice he didn’t really include fancy or flashy technique in his game play. Sam Smith of EPSN.com put it this way: “He doesn't dribble behind his back or through his legs. He doesn't crossover. His highlight reel features primarily bounce passes and layups. Despite evidence to the contrary these days, that's basketball.”(NBA.com, Encyclopedia) Finally, unlike most basketball stars, John Stockton never dunked the ball. He preferred the fundamental, ordinary lay up shot off the glass to the high flying rim rockers one would see multiple times in a game today.

Despite these shortcomings, John Stockton was able to amass enough assists (15,806) and steals (315) over his career to hold the NBA record for both statistics. He led the Utah Jazz to two NBA Finals championship runs (1997 and 1998), where they lost, both times, to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Stockton helped both teammate Karl Malone and coach Jerry Sloan further their careers and reach Hall of Fame honors (Sloan last summer; Malone this coming June). He made everyone around him better, by sharing the ball and picking apart defenses.

On the world stage, Stockton joined the USA Olympic Basketball team and earned two Gold Medals: 1992 and 1996. These teams came to be widely known as the “Dream Team,” because there were eleven of the Top 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time on the team, including Stockton and Malone. (Hoopedia.com, NBA 50 Greatest Players) This team beat every opponent they played by an average of 44 points, just to give you an idea of how good they really were.
Stockton was also named to ten All-Star games, and won the All-Star MVP award in 1993 (co-MVP with teammate Karl Malone). (Basketball-Reference.com, Players)

As mentioned earlier, even if you were not privileged to have witnessed John Stockton play the game of basketball in your lifetime, all you need to do is look at his career statistics, and you’ll have a firm grasp of what kind of player he was. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Stockton made 52% of his field goals, 83% of his free throws, had 15,806 assists (#1 all time leader), and 315 steals (#1 all time leader) over his 19 year career. These are astonishing numbers, and have vaulted him into the argument that he is the best point guard to ever play the game.

Then there’s Steve Nash. A player who can give Stockton some competition for this grand title…..

Nash was born in South Africa, and later moved to and became a citizen of Canada, where he grew up in Vancouver, B.C. (Steve recently was chosen to light the Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver). His father was a professional soccer player, and gave Steve his natural athletic ability and hard-nosed toughness.

While most kids coming from Canada play hockey and soccer, Steve found he had a true joy for basketball (though he is also well known as a very skilled soccer player), and played for Santa Clara college. He was drafted 15th overall in the 1996 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns. He has spent his career with both the Suns and the Dallas Mavericks.

Something that often goes unnoticed when comparing Steve Nash and John Stockton is that they both played college basketball in the West Coast Conference, where each of them became two of only four players in history to lead the conference in scoring and assists in the same season. (NBA.com, Player Files/Basketball-Reference.com, Players)

In two different seasons (2004-05, 2005-06) Nash was named the Most Valuable Player of the NBA. In those years he made, on average, 51% of his field goals, 90% of his free throws, had 1,687 assists, and amassed 137 steals. Nash has been named to seven All-Star games.
He was, at one time or another, teammates of NBA greats Shaquille O’Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, and Amare Stoudemire. Also, in each of the last five years, Nash has been one of the top three assists leaders in the NBA. (ESPN.com, NBA Statistics)

Finally, while he hasn’t been to the NBA Finals yet, every year his team is considered to be contenders to win the Western Conference title and change that statistic.

As you can see, both Nash and Stockton are very well fit and skilled as point guards in the NBA. They are about the same height and weight. They have both played with great teammates who have helped elevate their own personal games. Neither player has won a championship, nor do they ever dunk the basketball. At this moment, things may seem too evenly matched to make a decision between the two. However, there are a few key arguments that need to be made here, and they are in favor of John Stockton.

First of all, while Nash may have a better career free throw percentage and has won two MVP awards, neither of these statistics compare with the record setting performance Stockton displayed in his career in regards to assists and steals.

As a point guard, your job is to get the team to work together in the offensive game-plan, smoothly and collectively. Your goal is not to score a lot of points yourself, but to make smart and timely passes to teammates who can then have a higher probability of scoring, as they will most likely be closer to the basket. That is to say, the point guard will usually stay farther away from the basket, and thus his chances of making a shot are drastically lower than that of his teammates’ who usually are closer in proximity to the hoop. That being said, the assist statistic is the one area that defines the duty of a point guard. Get the ball to the best player, at the right time, who will give your team the best opportunity to score. Having done this 15,806 times in his career, Stockton has clearly left no room for comparison in regards to assists (the next closest player behind Stockton on the career assists chart is Jason Kidd with 10,742. Nash is 8th all time with 8,167.) (Basketball-Reference.com, Leaders)

The second point that needs to be made in arguing Stockton as the better of the two point guards is that he statistically made everyone around him better than they had been previous to being his teammate. One of many examples of this would be Bryon Russell.

Bryon Russell was a fine basketball player at California State University, Long Beach. After being drafted by the Jazz, he enjoyed nine full seasons in Utah with John Stockton as his point guard. While on the team, Russell averaged 497 shots per season, and made an average of 47% of those shots. After leaving Utah and playing for three other teams, Russell averaged only 267 shots per season, and was successful on only 37% of them. With Stockton as his point guard, Russell was taking more shots per season, which shows that Stockton was able to create more open shots for him. This is backed by the shooting percentage statistic which shows Russell made 47% of his shots while in Utah; a direct result of his being wide open because of Stockton’s ability to draw defenders in close to him, and then pass it to the unguarded Russell. The statistics show that once Russell left Utah and had point guard other than Stockton passing him the ball and running his team’s offense, Russell was no longer shooting the ball as well, or as often. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that the guards he was then playing with were unable to create as many open shots for him as Stockton had earlier in Bryon’s career. (Basketball-Reference.com, Players)

As stated earlier, the numbers do not lie. Yes, Steve Nash is a fantastic point guard in his own right. He does even have very similar game techniques and statistics comparable to those of John Stockton. However, the assists record Stockton holds, and the statistics which show Stockton actually made other players around him better, prove that John Stockton was indeed the better point guard between the two. He is a legend, and will forever be etched in the history books as one of the greatest players to ever enter the NBA. While Nash will surely retire with grand accolades of his own and a spot in the Hall of Fame, he will never be able to statistically conquer the great John Stockton.