Salt Lake City, UT – The Utah Jazz announced today that the team will retire John Stockton’s number 12 on November 22, 2004 vs. the New Orleans Hornets
"We are excited to honor John in this special way. After spending his entire 19 year career with the franchise, John's incredible athleticism deserves to be memorialized,†said Jazz Owner, Larry H. Miller. “We look forward to hosting him and his family on November 22nd, the evening will certainly be memorable"
Stockton’s the NBA’s all-time leader in assists (15,806) and steals (3265) and named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history, spent his entire 19-year career with the Jazz playing in 1,504 games. He was selected by Utah in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft (16th pick overall) and retired following the 2002-03 season.
During his illustrious career, the future Hall-of-Famer, was named to the All-NBA First Team two times (1993-94, 1994-95), the All-NBA Second Team six times and the All-NBA Third team three times. He was selected to play in 10 NBA All-Star Games and selected as co-MVP along with Karl Malone in 1993 in the Game played at the Delta Center.
He was a member of the original “Dream Team†that won the Gold Medal during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and played on the 1996 Olympic Team that won the Gold Medal in Atlanta.
Stockton holds the NBA record for most seasons leading the league in assists (nine, 1987-88 through 1995-96), the most consecutive seasons leading the league (nine), the most assists in a single season (1,164 in 1990-91) and the highest single season assists-per-game average (14.5 in 1990-91). He accounted for seven of the nine seasons of 1,000 assists in league history. He served up a career-high 28 assists, the third highest total in league history vs. San Antonio on January 15, 1991 and set the NBA record for most assists by a visiting players with 27 at New York on December 12, 1989.
He played in 1,504 of a possible 1,526 games during his career (.986%), to rank third on the NBA’s all-time games played list (Robert Parish, 16,111 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1,560) and played in every game in 17 of his 19 seasons.
Stockton appeared in the NBA playoffs in all 19 seasons and played in 182 of the 193 post-season games in Jazz history. He ranks first in NBA history for most consecutive seasons in the playoffs and for most appearances. He shares the NBA’s single game playoff record for most assists in a game with 24 (Magic Johnson) vs. the Los Angeles Lakers on May 17, 1998.
His number will be the sixth number retired in Jazz history, following Pete Maravich (7), Frank Layden (1), Darrell Griffith (35), Mark Eaton (53) and Jeff Hornacek (14).
John and his wife Nada are the parents of six children, Houston, Michael, David, Lindsay, Lauren and Samuel and they make their home in Spokane, Washington.
Tickets for the November 22 game against the Hornets will go on sale on Saturday, October 16, at all Jazz ticket outlets including the Delta Center box office and utahjazz.com.