Jazz’s Stockton Takes Pay Cut

John Stockton was willing to take a pay cut. He’s fairly certain he’ll be able to make ends meet with a salary of $8 million for each of the next two seasons.

The future hall of famer announced Thursday he has signed a two-year contract extension with the Utah Jazz, the only team he has played for.

Stockton made $11 million last season, but agreed to take about $3 million less so the Jazz would not exceed the estimated luxury tax threshold of $54 million.

“I just look at myself mostly as fortunate,” Stockton said. “It’s not like we’ll be at the soup kitchen. This is a very good job. There’s not a guy in the league who doesn’t have one of the best jobs in the world.”

This season will be Stockton’s 18th.

Stockton, the NBA’s all-time leader in assists and steals, has missed only 22 of 1,362 regular-season games.

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The New York Knicks have until Monday to spend a special $2.875-million injury exception, and they might offer the money to free-agent center Marc Jackson.

If, however, the Houston Rockets receive an injury exception worth $3.25 million from the league office before Monday, Jackson could end up manning Hakeem Olajuwon’s old spot.

The Knicks were granted the disabled-player exception because of a career-ending injury to Luc Longley. The Rockets, meanwhile, are awaiting word from the NBA on whether they will receive a medical exception for the season-ending injury to Maurice Taylor.

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Free-agent guard Galen Young has been signed by the Indiana Pacers. Young, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard out of North Carolina Charlotte, spent the 2000-01 season playing in Japan.

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Portland Trail Blazer great Clyde Drexler will join the Denver Nuggets as an aide to General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe.

The team also announced that former Utah assistant coach David Fredman and former Clipper director of player personnel Jeff Weltman will be assistant general managers and that former NBA coach John MacLeod will be a basketball consultant.

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The Clippers named Mo McHone an assistant coach. McHone spent the last two seasons as an assistant with the Detroit Pistons, including 1999-2000 while current Clipper Coach Alvin Gentry was in Detroit. McHone also spent seven seasons as a head coach in the now defunct Continental Basketball Assn. ... The Clippers will begin selling individual game tickets Oct.6 at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at Staples Center box office, TicketMaster locations and also by calling the NBA ticket hotline at (800) 4NBA-TIX. They also can be purchased on-line at https://Clippers.com and https://Ticketmaster.com.