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).
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