On This Day (Feb. 1)

Notable events from NBA history that occurred on February 1.

Stockton Sets NBA Mark

On this day in 1995, the Utah Jazz’s John Stockton dished out 16 assists in a 129-88 win over the Denver Nuggets, passing Magic Johnson to become the NBA’s all-time leader in assists. Stockton finished his career with 15,806 assists, a whopping 3,715 more than the next-closest player (Jason Kidd, 12,091).

Stockton’s record appears unassailable, at least for the near future. As Zach Kram pointed out on The Ringer yesterday:

We could add up the assist tallies for the last 19 season leaders — in other words, add Trae Young’s 2021-22 assists to Russell Westbrook’s 2020-21 assists, and so on, all the way back through Stephon Marbury’s 2003-04 assists — and still not reach Stockton’s career total.

Wow 😳

This was one of 293 career games in which Stockton recorded at least 15 assists, 105 more such games than any other player in NBA history:

• 293 — John Stockton

• 188 — Magic Johnson

• 110 — Steve Nash

Stockton also scored 12 points in this game, one of his NBA-record 714 points-assists double-doubles. No one else is within 170 such games of Stockton (Magic Johnson, 543).