Stockton/Malone played 18 seasons together and were eliminated in the 1st round 9 times

Professor Emeritus

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Let's also point out they had an upper-tier shooting guard that entire run (first Jeff Malone, then Jeff Hornacek), and a multiple time DPOY in the middle for the first half (Mark Eaton). Plus an elite coach and all that continuity.

Yet they couldn't even make the WCF until well into the expansion era, and didn't make the Finals until everyone else was washed.

It's not like that ran into a buzzsaw of great teams either. 9 different squads eliminated them during that run. The whole Western Conference ran a train on their ass.

As a Blazer fan, you were never scared of the Jazz in the 'offs because you knew they would underperform and the pick and roll would get easier and easier to figure out as the series went on. You just hoped you weren't gonna lose anyone to a Malone elbow first.
 

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Also, this is why it's dumb as hell to rate Stockton over CP3 due to "lack of playoff success". CP3 had close to the same playoff success as Stockton despite worse teammates, worse coaching, and no continuity at all. Imagine CP3 getting Karl Malone for 18 years instead of a few years each of David West and mostly injured Blake Griffin.
 

The Amerikkkan Idol

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The team was mostly black.

Karl Malone was a dirty, hustleman pretending to be a number one option and Stockton lacked scoring aggression.
Yeah, but no good Black players wanted to play for Utah.

Teams like Utah, Milwaukee, & OKC will always have trouble winning becaues there's ZERO reason for any real players to go there voluntarily

And any great players they draft or acquire, will be leaving soon, if they're African-AMERICAN

It's another reason I don't judge Malone & Stockton as much as others.

Imagine who they would've played with if they played in New York, L.A., hell even Atlanta.
Larry Brown didnt coach the Spurs team you referencing.

And Sean Elliot was probably a third option ar his best.
He was the coach from 1988-1992, I'm pretty sure that's the David Robinson/Sean Elliott era
In the finals, the Bulls were always the favorite team. Even in 91. That was a Laker team on it's last legs with a man who just contracted HIV. I mean.... that wasn't the 80s Late Show Showtime Lakers.
Man, nobody was looking at the Lakers as "on their last legs" :heh:

They had just beat a Blazers team that was in the Finals the year before and would be in the Finals the year after & one of Golden State's best "pre-Steph" Run-TMC teams
1.)How many of these guys played together though :mjlol: . Imagine if Dirk played with Steph curry for 18 years they won zero chips and got Eliminated in round 9 times?

That’s kinda the point. 2 of the alleged 5 best players to ever play their position played together for 20 years(their entire peaks and primes) and were regular playoff flameouts.

2.)It sounds like Your saying Jerry was the overrated one? The problem with that is he made a WCF without both those guys with Deron Williams who will never make the hall.
That would probably be Dirk's fate if he played in Magic, Brid, and Jordan's NBA:yeshrug:

Dirk only has the title he has because LeBron James choked in 4 straight 4th quarters in 2011.

If it wasn't for that, he'd be considered one of the great losers in NBA history like Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Chris Paul

Just giving him Steph Curry wouldn't beat the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, or Pistons

Probably not a lot of those Hakeem Olajuwon Houston teams and the Shawn Kemp/Gary Payton Sonics teams.
 

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Yeah, but no good Black players wanted to play for Utah.

Teams like Utah, Milwaukee, & OKC will always have trouble winning becaues there's ZERO reason for any real players to go there voluntarily

And any great players they draft or acquire, will be leaving soon, if they're African-AMERICAN

It's another reason I don't judge Malone & Stockton as much as others.

Imagine who they would've played with if they played in New York, L.A., hell even Atlanta.


:dahell:


Let's look at those rosters.


1989 Jazz:

PG: All-Star, 2nd-team All-NBA, 2nd-team All-Defensive, 7th in MVP vote, HOF and one of the greatest point guards ever
SG: former ROY and regular 20ppg scorer who was past his prime but still putting up 13ppg
SF: putting up nearly 20ppg
PF: All-Star, 1st-team All-NBA, 3rd in MVP vote, HOF and one of the greatest power forwards ever
C: All-Star, 1st-team All-Defensive, Defensive Player of the Year, 13th in MVP vote



1992 Jazz:

PG: All-Star, 2nd-team All-NBA, 2nd-team All-Defensive, 12th in MVP vote, HOF and one of the greatest point guards ever
SG: former All-Star still in his prime averaging 20+ ppg
SF: mid role player
PF: All-Star, 1st-team All-NBA, 4th in MVP vote, HOF, and one of the greatest power forwards ever
C: Former All-Star and DPOY, pretty washed but still averaging 2.5 blocks/game



1995 Jazz:

PG: All-Star, 1st-team All-NBA, 2nd-team All-Defensive, 8th in MVP vote, HOF and one of the greatest point guards ever
SG: former All-Star and 20ppg scorer, still in his prime averaging 17ppg
SF: shytty role player
PF: All-Star, 1st-team All-NBA, 3rd in MVP vote, HOF and one of the greatest power forwards ever
C: platoon between washed former All-Star and washed former 20ppg player



That's what sort of rosters they were fielding when they were struggling. Every fukking year they had 2 of the best players in the game, a 3rd player who was at a borderline all-star level, and a former all-star who was now a crafty vet.


At the time, Malone was considered the greatest PF ever and Stockton was considered a top-3 point guard of all time. If that was true, and they were both in their prime, with a good coach, together with all that continuity, and having multiple other solid players on the squad, how is that not enough to do something?



Yet in the 10-year stretch from 1986 to 1995, they lost in the 1st round 6 times, in the WCSF twice, and in the WCF twice. Only once did they reach a Game 7.

How is that possible? :why:



Their 1997-1998 rosters were actually sad compared to what they were fielding 1988-1995. Stockton and Hornacek were too washed to be the starting backcourt for a title team and their SF and center rotations were less than mediocre. They only advanced those years because literally everyone else had aged out.
 

murksiderock

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Just wanna add, most black dudes would grow tired of Salt Lake because there are so few black people there. But it's an absolutely gorgeous city, most beautiful city I've seen in the United States, and there really isn't a close second, that I've seen. It kinda feels like it's am undiscovered market for black folk, and I don't know what it would take for black people to migrate there en masse...

But it's a stunningly captivating city from a physical and geographical standpoint, in another reality I could see black folk living there...
 

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Neither were killers and it showed. Extremely good ball players, but neither of them demanded the rock to take over a game and finish it out with their skills. That was their Achilles heel
 

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Karl Malone is one of thebbiggest playoff chokers of all time and for some reason nikkas get angry and defensive whenever I point that out. Not just losing big games but his overall play dropsped MAJORLY because he didn't have a 1v1 skillset.

I remember I called Karl Anthony Towns Karl Anthony Malone for his similar playoff spinchteritis and got major pushback for it :pachaha:
 

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Do yall think Barkley-Stockton woudve worked better than Malone-Stockton? Like let's say Stockton plays for the 92-93 Suns instead of Kevin Johnson, what changes? Or Barkley plays for the Jazz from 88 to 94 instead of Malone?
Jazz are way more successful with Chuck than the Suns are with Stockton I think. Jerry Sloans system helped Stockton a lot.
 

Street Knowledge

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Yeah, but no good Black players wanted to play for Utah.

Teams like Utah, Milwaukee, & OKC will always have trouble winning becaues there's ZERO reason for any real players to go there voluntarily

And any great players they draft or acquire, will be leaving soon, if they're African-AMERICAN

It's another reason I don't judge Malone & Stockton as much as others.

Imagine who they would've played with if they played in New York, L.A., hell even Atlanta.

He was the coach from 1988-1992, I'm pretty sure that's the David Robinson/Sean Elliott era

Man, nobody was looking at the Lakers as "on their last legs" :heh:

They had just beat a Blazers team that was in the Finals the year before and would be in the Finals the year after & one of Golden State's best "pre-Steph" Run-TMC teams

That would probably be Dirk's fate if he played in Magic, Brid, and Jordan's NBA:yeshrug:

Dirk only has the title he has because LeBron James choked in 4 straight 4th quarters in 2011.

If it wasn't for that, he'd be considered one of the great losers in NBA history like Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Chris Paul

Just giving him Steph Curry wouldn't beat the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, or Pistons

Probably not a lot of those Hakeem Olajuwon Houston teams and the Shawn Kemp/Gary Payton Sonics teams.
Again, they wasn’t just losing to champions. They were losing to random teams that never won anything. In 89 they loss to a 43 win warriors team that never won anything :mjlol:

Dirk could Beat the 2006 spurs coming of a ring with 3 HOF’s But apparently he would lose to the 1993 Sonics with Steph Curry :mjlol:
 
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Karl Malone is one of thebbiggest playoff chokers of all time and for some reason nikkas get angry and defensive whenever I point that out. Not just losing big games but his overall play dropsped MAJORLY because he didn't have a 1v1 skillset.

I remember I called Karl Anthony Towns Karl Anthony Malone for his similar playoff spinchteritis and got major pushback for it :pachaha:
Karl would score 45 points and it would be all dumpoffs wide open jumpers created by Stockton and cuts to the basket :heh:
 
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