5. John and Karl win co-MVP of the All-Star game
The Utah Jazz and their fans had a blast at the 1993 All-Star weekend. For the first time ever, the Jazz hosted the midseason festivities in the relatively new Delta Center.
At the time they had two Hall of Fame players in their prime, as John Stockton and Karl Malone had been stacking up the All-Star and All-NBA appearances for years at that point.
For Stock, it was his fifth straight All-Star selection, and he was the five-time defending champion in leading the NBA in assists. For Karl, this game was his sixth consecutive All-Star appearance and he had won the All-Star game MVP back in 1989.
The game was tightly contested through all four quarters and ended up going into overtime. The West ended up winning by three points, led by Karl Malone’s 28 points and John Stockton’s 15 assists.
Both were voted Co-MVPs of the game, which went perfectly in sync with their game and legacies.
Stockton was the ultimate set-up man that created offense for Karl Malone to be an All-Time great and second in All-Time points scored. Or was it Malone that was so reliable to get Stockton so many assists?
This is sports at its finest right here, and Salt Lake City was fortunate to enjoy 18 years of this dynamic duo. The Utah Jazz and even the NBA will never see anything like this ever again. Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan were great, as were Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
But no duo worked together on the court like Stockton and Malone. To this day they are the only teammates in NBA history to win Co-MVP of the All-Star game.
Utah hasn’t hosted the mid-season classic since but is scheduled to do so in 2023. What a story it would be if Mitchell and Rudy can do their best impersonation of this memory on the 30 year anniversary.