Happy Birthday to former Utah Jazz point guard John Crotty

Happy Birthday to retired former Utah Jazz point guard John Crotty! Crotty turns 47 today, and we all want to wish him the best. John Crotty went undrafted but started off his career in Utah. He was John Stockton's backup for three seasons (1992-93, 1993-94, and 1994-95) and saw a lot of winning. He also saw the floor too, playing in 165 games during that span. John was a journeyman who would play for six other teams during his career (Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Supersonics, Detroit Pistons, and the Denver Nuggets). As a veteran of over a decade of NBA basketball his experience was greatly appreciated when he return to the Jazz for his second stint, playing in over 70 games during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.

On the floor, Crotty was a little bit too prototypical to find any faults with. He shot 38% from deep and 84% from the line while keeping it respectable around 43% from the field on a whole. As a pass first point guard his Per 36 minutes averages in a Utah Jazz uniform are really nice, 12.0 ppg and 7.0 apg. As a bench point guard his 2:1 assist to turn over ratio helped the team offense run well enough when Stockton took a breather.

I wish there were more highlights of him in a Jazz jersey

In my lifetime he was the best back-up point guard (who did not at some point graduate to starting point guard) on the team not named Howard Eisley or Raul Lopez. Of course, I could be biased because I saw him on 11" TV back in standard definition in the 90s.