NBA.com takes a look at the top players that left the game but could have still played on. In that list is none other than John Stockton,
John Stockton: Outside of Salt Lake City, Stockton's decision to retire at age 41 after the 2002-03 season was vastly underplayed -- not unlike his career overall, which was marked by staggering assists totals, remarkable durability and a bare cupboard of memorable quotes. It might seem silly to suggest that a 41-year-old point guard could exit prematurely, but if you bump Stockton's 27.7 minutes to 36 and assume the same production, he would have averaged 14.0 ppg and 10.0 apg as his swan song.
There's no doubt that Stock could have played 1-2 more seasons, even at the age of 41. Nearly every team would have made him an offer at a last run. However, this was a player that had over 47,000 regular-season minutes (5th all-time) and almost 6,400 playoff minutes. After the 1997 season Sloan started cutting back on Stockton's minutes which probably bought Stockton another season.
Even in that last season, Stockton put up numbers that would have landed him a starting spot on most teams. Even though he was playing 3-4 minutes less per game than he would average over his career, his PER 36 numbers barely dropped.
My favorite part from his basketball-reference.com page is this:
June 19, 1984: Drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 1st round (16th pick) of the 1984 NBA Draft.
May 2, 2003: Retired from the Utah Jazz.
Tom Ziller presents the purity scale. No, BYU is not grading chastity now. I don't think. Anyway, he looks at the "pure" point guards of the league. Pure being pure passers and the impure being pure shooters. There are a couple of surprises on the list but Devin Harris is smack in the middle.
Matt Harpring was involved in a minor NCAA infraction with Georgia Tech when he was on the receiving end of some tickets,
The other secondary violation listed was the 10 impermissible tickets that were left by the men's basketball staff. The tickets became a violation, according to the NCAA, when they were left for people who had activity with possible student-athletes. According to multiple sources, the tickets were left for former players Matt Harpring, James Forrest and Dion Glover, who had been working out with kids who were 12 and 13 years old.
I guess even saying he was involved is too much. He didn't really have anything to do with it other than getting tickets to a game or games. But because he has camps for kids that could be possible student-athletes, it's a no-no.
The Yellow Jackets' former head coach, Paul Hewitt, is in the middle of this. The university let him go and he is now the head coach for George Mason. It wasn't just because of the tickets though, the "major" violation, a point Hewitt contends, was that one of his staff members took part in a basketball camp held on campus. And by took part, the advisor was taking notes.
Hewitt is was also the coach of Derrick Favors in his time at GT.
Yes, it's the off-season of a lockout, why do you ask?
David Kahn and Rick Carlisle were likely the first execs (well, their respective teams anyway) to get hit with the $1 million fine for speaking about players (first reported by Yahoo! Sports),
Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn was indeed the most obvious violator of the league's gag order. Last week, Kahn called a press conference to announce the firing of coach Kurt Rambis. During the question-and-answer portion of the press conference, Kahn specifically referenced center Brad Miller and point guard Ricky Rubio by name, and his comments were broadcast on a live streaming video feed on NBA.com/Timberwolves.
Another possible recipient of a fine is Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who conducted a radio interview in Portland, Oregon, and made reference to multiple members of the Trail Blazers before cutting the interview short, apparently by someone reminding him of the gag order.
Maybe instead of planking, players could start fine-bombing front office personnel? As far as I know, the NBAPA is not fining their players for contact with their respective teams. Perhaps players could cost their teams more money by ambushing execs, getting a picture taken and posting to twitter, thus earning the team some cash.
Thursday open poll... Best Slurpee flavor combo?