NBA PLAYOFFS: LAKERS vs. JAZZ : PASS MASTER : Utah’s Stockton Holds NBA Record for Season Assists

If that proposed league for short basketball players fails to make a go of it, Utah Jazz guard John Stockton--who stands 6 feet 1/2 inch in his stocking feet, according to his college coach--could be a disproportionate reason. So could Denver’s 5-9 Michael Adams, Cleveland’s 6-1 Mark Price and, eventually, Washington’s 5-3 Muggsy Bogues.

Who needs a league exclusively for little guys when the land of the giants--the National Basketball Assn.--is being overrun by Lilliputians of such skills?

Magic Johnson may still be the prototype point guard of the future, but for the moment, 6-9 athletes who can do all the things Johnson does are in short supply. In the meantime, guys like Stockton--who will be directing the Jazz against the Lakers tonight in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series--are dusting off memories of some illustrious undersized predecessors.

“He’s a throwback to the guys who could really handle the ball,” said Utah Coach Frank Layden. “A ballhandling guard like Bob Cousy.”

Wait a minute, you can hear the custodians of an earlier golden era asking what Stockton ever did to be mentioned in the same breath as a legend like Cousy?

Plenty, it turns out. Stockton, who before this season wasn’t even a full-time starter, set the record for assists--a category in which Cousy led the league in eight seasons--with 1,128 (5 more than Detroit’s Isiah Thomas in 1984-85). Stockton averaged 13.8 assists a game, nearly 2 more a game than runner-up Magic Johnson, and also was third in steals with a club-record 242, that’s 2.95 a game, and fourth in field goal percentage at 57.4%. He became the first NBA player to rank in the top 10 in those three categories in the same season.

“Today you have one-dimensional players,” Layden said. “You don’t have many players with multiple skills (like Stockton). . . . People don’t realize that years ago you had a scorer like Jerry West making the all-defensive team, or that Oscar Robertson averaged triple-doubles (10 or more points, rebounds, and assists a game).”

Cousy, West, Robertson. You take one look at Stockton and you figure the only way he’d ever be in the company of those guys is if he bought a ticket to the Basketball Hall of Fame. This is a guy who shaved maybe once a week, tops, when he was a senior in college at Gonzaga University, a school not exactly known for producing pro basketball stars at the same rate Caltech produces rocket scientists.

Stockton went to Gonzaga because the school wanted him and it was only a few blocks away from his home in Spokane, Wash., where his father, Jack, is co-proprietor of Jack & Dan’s, the only tavern in the neighborhood whose satellite dish is turned to receive Jazz games.

There was never any thought that Gonzaga would be the ideal breeding ground of a future NBA pass-master.

“When I was recruited at Gonzaga, they said if I ever became a pro they’d be the most shocked people around,” Stockton said. “I said, ‘No more than me.’ ”

Jay Hillock, who coached the varsity at Gonzaga before becoming an assistant to Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount, didn’t think much of Stockton’s pro chances.

“I didn’t think anyone that small could play in the NBA,” Hillock said.

Then again, Hillock was impressed by Stockton’s progress. “He was always a player continually developing. He just kept making steps, and he’s now a much better player than when I had him.”

Layden knew Gonzaga was the place to go for a crooner--Bing Crosby went there--but he had no idea that’s where he’d find the man who someday would run his offense. Even after he found him--the Jazz drafted Stockton 16th in the 1984 draft--Layden didn’t know what he had.

“The first time I heard of him was from Neil McCarthy, the coach at Weber State, who told me the best guard he’d ever seen was in school at Gonzaga,” Layden said. “I said, ‘All right, yeah, that’s great.’

“But then Ladell Andersen (Brigham Young’s coach), who was on the 1984 Olympic selection committee, said there was this terrific guard who should have made the team.”

Stockton was one of the final cuts from that team, and Hillock was there the day that U.S. Coach Bob Knight made the decision to keep his own Indiana guard, Steve Alford, instead. Alford, an NBA rookie now, has spent the season on the far end of the Dallas Mavericks’ bench.

“John stole the ball twice that day from Alford,” Hillock said. “He should have made the team.”

At least, however, he had made an impression, which became even more pronounced after the Jazz brass watched him play in an all-star game and tryout camp.

“I’d like to tell you we knew we had the greatest guard in history,” Layden said. “But we didn’t know what we were getting until this year. We knew he was good, but we didn’t know he’d be this good.”

Stockton may still be mistaken for the ballboy upon entering some arenas, but don’t be deceived by the unassuming appearance.

“He uses his brain, which is a big plus for a guy that small,” Laker Michael Cooper said. “He definitely has to use whatever assets he has--and he doesn’t have the jumping ability of someone like Spud Webb--but John does utilize all of his abilities--his dribbling and passing abilities, and his quickness.

“He’s deceptively quick. He lulls you to sleep. He’ll dribble and dribble--when you’re playing him you may start thinking about other things--and all of a sudden he takes off and he’s by you. And on defense, he has real quick hands.”

Among players Cooper considers the toughest to defend against, Stockton is hardly in the class of a Larry Bird or Michael Jordan. “But he’s slowly moving up the list because of his tenacity on the floor,” Cooper said. “He’s a competitor, which is all you ask of your point guard.”

He also seems to wear down about as often as a Swiss watch.

“They used to call John Havlicek a ‘third-lung player,’ because he never got tired,” Cooper said. “That’s what John is. And believe it or not, he’s physical, too.”

Stockton, who once ran a major road race in Spokane without training and finished in the top 200, said he needs a breather about as often as the nonstop-talking Layden takes one.

“Maybe (Cooper) is right,” Stockton said. “I don’t feel like I get tired. The adrenaline gets flowing . . . maybe the excitement takes over.”

The Lakers’ intent is to keep Stockton from taking over as he is wont to do, spotting up power forward Karl Malone for drives out of the low post or winging a pass to Malone for a fast-break dunk in the open court. The Lakers succeeded Sunday, limiting Stockton to 3 baskets in 13 shots, though he eventually finished with 16 assists.

“When he was drafted, the critics said, ‘Jeez, a 6-foot-1 little white guard,’ ” Laker Coach Pat Riley said. “But the guy’s a competitor--a competitor. (Laker assistant) Randy Pfund once made a statement about him, that a game is never over with when John Stockton is playing. He’s always in the game.

“His ballhandling skills are second to none, his decision-making and running of the offense are flawless, and he has become a productive shooter. He has become the third- or fourth-most productive player in the league, behind Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and right with Magic and Charles Barkley.

“People don’t think he’s quick, but he’ll blow right by you. He’s like a cougar, all coiled and ready to go.”

Stockton learned to handle all the rough stuff the NBA could possibly dish out by playing against his brother Steve in the driveway back home, where a brick wall served as baseline under one basket and a white picket fence acted as a sideline.

“A body check into the fence or the wall developed into an acceptable form of defense,” brother Steve has said. “But there weren’t that many fights.”

But what is it that separates Stockton, who until this season shared playing time with Rickey Green, from all the other guards who would seem to be as gifted physically.

“Luck,” Stockton said modestly. “You’d be surprised how much luck plays in it. Where you get to play, what college you go to, whether you get showcased.

“I was lucky Frank Layden took a chance on me, lucky he gave me playing time, lucky the Olympic trials took place my senior years. Those things really gave me a chance not everybody gets.”

But it goes much beyond that, says Pfund, who once was a small guard at a small college himself.

“There’s something very special there,” Pfund said, “because there are a lot of guys (like Stockton) who never make it in this league, let alone become a great player.”

The stigma of the small player may also have fueled his drive, Pfund said.

“For point guards, with the exception of the great ones, circumstances dictate a lot,” Pfund said. “Look at (former Laker) Adrian Branch. He was a pretty good guard, and he’s out of the league.

“There’s a real fine line between the guys who get to do it, and the guys who don’t.”

Stockton has shown that sneaker size doesn’t determine whether you cross that line or not.