John Stockton was a Utah Jazz legend, but his son David Stockton found himself on a different path.
The Utah Jazz are sending five players to the FIBA World Cup this year, all of whom will be playing for different teams. Only one, Walker Kessler, will be playing for Team USA. Team USA is full of good, young players, like Kessler, Tyrese Haliburton, and Paolo Banchero, but none of these men were the reason that Team USA qualified for the FIBA World Cup.
Team USA competed for qualification during the 2022-2023 NBA season, meaning that anyone under NBA contract couldn’t help the team qualify. Instead, they competed against Uruguay and Brazil with non-NBA pro players. One of whom was David Stockton, son of Utah Jazz legend John Stockton.
In fact, John Stockton’s son, David Stockton, has been helping Team USA qualify for the FIBA World Cup over the last two years. He’s been playing in qualifying games since 2021, and in his six games with the team, has gone 5-1.
Over those two sets of qualifiers, he’s averaged 11 points, 4.25 assists, and 1.65 rebounds per game, in just 19 minutes of action per outing. Considering his last outing with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, it’s fair to say that he’s got a lot of his father’s game.
He averaged nearly 13 points, 8.5 assists, and 3 rebounds per game in the G-League this past season. While he likely won’t get another shot in the NBA due to his age (31), he should, as he’s shown in international play, and in G-League competition, that he’s still got something to offer.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s got great court vision, or that he averaged almost 63% from three in his FIBA games. It’s nearly impossible for sons of NBA legends to ever live up to their father’s excellence, and John Stockton’s son, David, is no exception.
While David has become a good pro player in his own right, traveling the world and making a living playing the game he loves, he’s never had a real shot in the NBA. He spent a few seasons bouncing between the Sacramento Kings and the Stockton Kings, before having the briefest cup of coffee with the Jazz in the 2017-2018 season.
He didn’t stick around his father’s franchise, but now David is doing something he and all of Jazz Nation can be proud of, by being one of the biggest reasons for Team USA making the World Cup in the first place.