I would love to dive into a debate surrounding Stockton and the greatest point guards of all-time. However, with the end of the season upon us and the playoffs just around the corner, I don’t have time to devote to that debate at the moment (I am in fact falling behind with my regular posts at the moment as Jazzspin.com is unfortunately not my full-time job). But it could certainly be a great off-season discussion when/if the Jazz are eliminated, which is looking more and more like it is going to happen sooner rather than later. I certainly see where you are coming from with many of your points and it would be fun to dissect the issue much further.

Let me start by saying that even in my post I acknowledge Stockton’s dominance in assists and steals, as well as his insane efficiency as a scorer. And due to the brevity of a blog post, I didn’t go into depth on things like his clutch nature and how he often seemed like the one running the Jazz ship and not Malone.

All of that said, I never felt like he was the best player in the league. I watched Magic, Larry, Michael, Isiah, Olajuwon, Robinson, and many others that played during Stockton’s run and felt like they were better players. The reason that I chose to look at MVP votes and NBA first team selections is that was a way to quickly look at what the consensus was among the NBA community while Stockton was playing.

I definitely understand the flaws in MVP voting/All NBA teams, but comparing Stockton’s season to Nash’s 15 seasons later isn’t really relevant. The point of looking at the votes is to compare a player to their peers. So if Stockton only made 1st team All NBA twice in 19 seasons, that means that for the majority of his career voters considered point guards like Magic, Isiah, and even non-legends like Kevin Johnson or Mark Price to be better in individual seasons that Stockton.

Now, I’d still put Stockton high on any All–Time list. But there were plenty of times while watching that I DID feel like Magic was the best player in the NBA. I never felt like Isiah was the best player in the NBA, but I did feel he was better than Stockton. I’m not sure about Paul yet…he’s still young and has a lot to prove, but in his short career he’s impressed me.

So anyway, that’s my opinion. I look forward to continuing this discussion, hopefully on both sites.

espn had one writer post a few weeks ago that chris paul is greater than magic johnson…give me a break with the hype.

despite what snellings wants his readers to believe, longevity IS one aspect of greatness. if someone averages 20&10 but sits out 40 games per year for their career, they simply can’t be mentioned in this kind of conversation.

He takes a hit because he wasn’t flashy.