People who hate LeBron James love to take shots at the superstar’s legacy by pointing out how often he has switched teams and joined a new one that has a stacked roster. Such people will compare that career arc to those of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, all of whom either stayed with the same team throughout their careers or, in Jordan’s case, didn’t leave until near the end.
Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton is another former star who stuck it out with the same team throughout his basketball life. He remained with the Utah Jazz for each of his 19 seasons in the NBA, even as the Jazz went from championship contenders in the late 1990s to a state of slow decay once the new millennium arrived.
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He was asked about James’ outsized influence on his teams as far as bringing in players or paving the way for a departure, and he took a big shot at the 40-year-old’s resume.
“I like where guys tighten their belt up and say…’Let’s go to work. We just got to get better. We got to play harder. We gotta play smarter,’ instead of just, ’Huh, where’s the grass greener? I’m gonna go there and win a championship.’ I think it devalues that.
“You’re not climbing the mountain, you’re taking a helicopter to the top.”
Stockton’s Jazz reached the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998, only to lose to Jordan’s Chicago Bulls both times. He and his fellow Utah star Karl Malone never won a championship, but Stockton never left the team as a free agent or asked to be traded in order to chase a ring.
Interestingly, Malone did leave the Jazz in 2003 — the same year Stockton retired — to join Shaquille O’Neal and the late Kobe Bryant on the Lakers. Fellow Hall of Famer Gary Payton left the Seattle SuperSonics the same offseason and also came to the Purple and Gold, but the team ultimately lost in the NBA Finals to the Detroit Pistons after a rash of injuries and off-court drama.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: John Stockton takes a huge shot at LeBron James’ legacy