Hall of Fame Memories......................

This was one of the best basketball Hall of Fame classes ever. In Michael Jordan, you have arguably the best player to ever play the game of basketball. I watched them from Dr. J to today, and I will say that I have never seen anyone play the game better, and probably never will see anyone play better than MJ. He was as close to unstoppable as it gets. David Robinson, was one of he classiest, consistant players to play, Vivian Stringer and Jerry Sloans credentials speak for themselves.

John Stockton was my favorite inductee, no, he was not as great as Michael Jordan, he didn't have 6 rings to signify his greatness. What John Stockton's Hall of Fame career was made of was making his team better. In his induction speech he made the comment that from Junior High on, he wasn't the best player on his team. I disagree, he was great because he did what ever it took to make the rest of his team mates better. He finished his career as the NBA's all time leader in steals and assists.

He was nearly always the smallest player on the floor, yet he controlled the game. The Utah Jazz made it to two finals because he was able to make his team mates better. In the end, they weren't as good as the Bulls with Jordan and Pippen. He was consistently called the leagues dirtiest player by players that were bigger, more physically imposing, and on paper, more talented he was. He set vicious picks allowing other players to get open looks at the basket.

Another trait that he exhibited on the floor was a fiestiness or meanness in that if he made a bad pass, you could see on his face that he was going to make a steal or cause a turnover for the other team. What made him great was no one outworked him. He and Karl Malone were famous here for being the first ones in the gym and the last ones to leave, he was always in high gear, especially when he was younger.

There are many great lessons to what made John Stockton great:

1.Work hard, better yet work harder than everyone else.

2. Make sure those around you succeed. (It is about the client and not us)

3. Don't stop, keep moving and hustling.

4. Don't get down over your mistakes, make it up by working to overcome them. (Steal the ball back or cause the other team to make a turnover.)

5. Get better everyday, work to improve what skills you have.

6. It isn't the size of the dog in the fight that matters, what matters is the size of the fight in the dog. (Others may have advantages that you can't control, so what, you can still succeed against bigger, stronger opponents.)

7. Be coachable, learn new things. Plan your work and work your plan. (I once heard a National TV commentator say that the Jazz only ran 5 plays, they just executed them so well that you couldn't stop them even if you knew what they were doing.)

8. The spotlight doesn't have to shine on you. Again, it is about the client winning, not us.

9. Show up for work everyday. In 18 seasons, Stockton missed only a handfull of games, even being the smallest guy on the court on most nights.

10. Have fun, his induction speech showed a great sense of humor. He even had Michael Jordan laughing hysterically.