Stockton turning 40, but who's counting?

By Tim Buckley Deseret News sports writer

SEATTLE ....The ageless wonder is about to reach an age of great distinction. John Stockton turns 40 years old Tuesday, and when he does the Jazz point guard will become one of just 10 men in NBA history to play into the fifth decade of their lives. To him, it's no big deal. No midlife crisis. No manic depression. No wondering what the future holds now that he will be riding down the slope to senior citizenry. "I'm only a day older when it happens," the NBA's all-time steals and assists leader said of his approaching birthday, which falls on the same date the Jazz play host to Houston in the Delta Center. "Not a year." Granted, O ye of much learned time on this Earth. Still, the fact remains: Stockton, born March 26, 1962, in Spokane, Wash., is doing what those half his age wish they could. Even in this advanced stage of his 18-season career, he averages 12.8 points and 8 assists a game. With only 13 to go after tonight's back-to-back opener at Seattle, he hasn't missed a game all season. And he averages a whopping 31 minutes per game, all save for his throwback skin-tight short-shorts, the same basic haircut he has had since graduating nearly 22 years ago from Spokane's Gonzaga Prep School, and the occasional time some young-punk point blows by him, with hardly a hint as to just how old Utah's best-known basketball geezer really is. To us, it is a big deal. To understand how he does it, then, perhaps it is best to go straight to the source. Stockton maintains there are a multitude of secrets to his longevity. In an unusually revealing exercise of candor from an intensely private individual, he listed these highest on the list

THE GOOD DOCTOR: Craig Buhler was the Jazz's team chiropractor when Stockton joined Utah as the No. 16 overall selection in the 1984 NBA Draft, following his four-season college career at Gonzaga. Stockton didn't utilize Buhler's services right away, but since then he has come to depend greatly on him. "It's complicated and it's easy all at once," Stockton, who has played in 1,409 of a possible 1,431 regular-season games with the Jazz, said in attempting to explain just what Buhler does to keep him going. Stockton missed two games due to a sprained ankle and two due to a viral infection in the 1989-90 season, and 18 in 1997-98 for surgery on his left knee. He has played through an inordinate amount of pain in countless others, including several games early this season when the crease beneath a knuckle on one of his shooting-hand fingers was ripped open. For all of that, he credits Buhler, an employee of the Jazz medical staff who travels with the team on many of its road trips. "I mean, his title is chiropractor, but . . . how am I going to put it in terms you can write it?" Stockton said. "He keeps things balanced, to where you're not having to always adjust around pain, or injury. It prevents the next level of injuries."

LOVE FOR THE GAME: Stockton has not said when he will retire, though he did say he has not yet determined if this season will be his last. The call probably won't be made until the offseason, when he knows for certain one way or the other. Whenever he does decide to stop playing, though, it won't be easy. "The other stuff, (practices, time away from family), has gotten harder every year. But getting to play, that's the hardest thing to let go of, really," he said. "You can't duplicate the camaraderie on the bus, in the locker room, things like that. Or, getting to play the game you like against the best in the world every night. You just can't duplicate that environment anywhere else."

FAMILY FUN (LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION): The opportunity to spend his entire career in Utah has been a blessing for Stockton and his large family, including wife Nada and six children. "They really like it. But I don't know if they would anywhere else," Stockton said of his chosen profession. "I mean, really, we have some really unique things here for them. "It may sound small to other people, but the fact that (the older kids) get to come shoot around once in a while before or after a game, it reminds me of when I used to go into my dad's bar, when I was underage, after school, just to say, 'Hi,' " added Stockton, whose father Jack is co-owner of Jack and Dan's, a popular Spokane tavern. "You feel . . . it's neat. And I think they enjoy that. I don't think it's the notoriety, or the glitz, or anything, but they get to go to Dad's game. They get to watch Dad work, and they get to enjoy some of the little things like that that not every kid does." It's not just the little ones, either. "She loves it," Stockton said of Nada. "She's a sports nut anyway. She loves playing 'em, loves watching 'em."

BEYOND 40: Stockton grudgingly admits day-to-day life in the NBA isn't what it was 15 or so years ago, and that fact could play a part in determining precisely how far beyond 40 he winds up playing. "(It's) harder for me to up and leave (on a road trip) when I know I'm gonna miss four of the kids' games. Or maybe even eight. Or an event at school, where they're singing or something like that," Stockton said, sounding eerily similar to longtime teammate Jeff Hornacek prior to his retirement two offseasons ago. "That's probably the hardest (part) of all as the years have gone by." Will he make it to 41? To 42? To . . . 47, making him the NBA's oldest player ever? Even the ageless one wonders. To a degree. "I don't even want to think about it now," Stockton said. "An approach that's worked for me the last four or five years, just go play, and decide afterward."