The Perfect Player

About a week ago John Stockton was enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was my favorite basketball player growing up and someone I always looked up to. He made it cool to pass, to work hard, and he always put the team and his family first.

After Bill Belichick’s comment that recently retired linebacker Tedy Bruschi was a “perfect player” Jerry Sloan said that John Stockton is the closest thing he's ever seen to a perfect NBA player. "I'd never heard that before," Sloan told the Salt Lake Tribune, "but it certainly would represent John Stockton in almost every aspect of basketball."

John Stockton led his team to 19 playoff appearances, making it to the NBA finals twice. I will never forget the first, when he made the three pointer over Charles Barkley at the buzzer to win the series. The Jazz didn’t usually show a lot of emotion, but boy did they show it then!

He played in 10 all star games, being named co-MVP of the 1993 game with teammate Karl Malone. He was selected to the All-NBA teams 10 times and named to the NBA All-Defensive teams five times. In 1996 he was named one of the 50 greatest players ever to play in the NBA, he truly did it all.

John Stockton commandingly holds the records for both Assists and Steals. He had 5,483 more assists than second place Mark Jackson. To demonstrate how amazing this is, only 33 players in NBA history have ever recorded 5,483 assists. He has over twice as many assists as Steve Nash who has won two MVP awards.

He holds the record for assists-per-game average over one season with 14.5, and is one of only three players to record over 1,000 assists in one season. Kevin Porter and Isiah Thomas did it once, Stockton did it SEVEN times!

Not only could he play great defense and make everyone around him better, but he was a great scorer. He ranks #30 on the all-time NBA scoring list with 19,711 career points.

With all of these records and success you might think it would go to his head. This was never the case. He was as humble as could be. He was often the smallest player on the court, he didn’t look very imposing, but he always gave it his all. Karl Malone said he would wake up during the off season and think to himself, John’s at home working out, so I better get working. He inspired everyone around him, his teammates often had their best seasons of their career. If they worked hard they knew that he would reward them.

He tried to stay out of the limelight, and was very successful. Check out this video it is hilarious!

I was fortunate enough to meet John Stockton, although not as fan friendly as Karl Malone. (Who I have met a few times, he and his brother gave my brother and I fishing lessons).

His autograph is one of my prized possessions. My dad won tickets to the game that he broke the steals record. (Luckily he got a steal that day) After the game they gave us a certificate that said we were in attendance. Later in the year we attended one of the Jazz practices. We hoped that we could get all of the Jazz players to sign autographs.

Every single player signed for me except for Stockton, this did not stop my determination. We waited out in the parking lot for him to head home, he was the very last player to leave. At this point there was only my little brother and I waiting. We asked again for his autograph and he said only if we would walk with him to his car. We agreed and I was able to get the certificate signed.

As he enters the Hall of Fame I will always remember him as the perfect player. He gave his all, made those around him better. He could score with the best, yet was satisfied to let someone else get the glory of scoring. He never liked all of the attention and awards, yet they came in abundance and may have come more freely if he had been willing to work more with the media and fans. His assist record may never be broken. I know, in my heart at least, that he will always be the best point guard to ever play the game.

This video almost brings tears to my eyes, so many good memories.

Assists
1. John Stockton 15,806

2 Mark Jackson 10,334

3 JASON KIDD 10,199

4 Magic Johnson 10,141

5 Oscar Robertson 9,887

6 Isiah Thomas 9,061

7 Gary Payton 8,966

8 Rod Strickland 7,987

9 STEVE NASH 7,505

10 Maurice Cheeks 7,392

Steals

1 John Stockton 3,265

2 Michael Jordan 2,514

3 Gary Payton 2,445

4 Maurice Cheeks 2,310

5 Scottie Pippen 2,307

6 Clyde Drexler 2,207

7 JASON KIDD 2,198

8 Hakeem Olajuwon 2,162

9 Alvin Robertson 2,112

10 Karl Malone 2,085

Better Days

Life has its ups and downs, I know mine has. Although I have had a lot to go through the past year I really can’t complain. I have been trying to think about what to write, but nothing has really come to mind, other than life is good. So let me list a few reasons why:

First of all I love my class this year! Not to say I didn’t last year, because I did, but it is so much easier. It isn’t just that I now have more experience and have learned from my mistakes and successes, but I really have a great class. I have some talkers, but slowly one by one they are getting better. I'm not sure it will ever be perfect, but if it's because they are excited about what we are learning, that is a good thing.

Plus I like to talk too, so I can't really complain. Sometimes at faculty meetings last year they wouldn't let me sit by my team to keep us from talking. They said it was so that we could share ideas amongst grade levels, but then they didn't split up any other teams. Unfortunately, for them, I am slowly starting to make friends with more people, so it won’t work for long!

I have also enjoyed having my students come back and visit me or pop their heads in on their way home. I feel like a celebrity whenever I walk into the lunch room because I hear my name being yelled out with kids saying hi. I know most of the kids that tell me I am their favorite teacher have probably said that to all of their teachers, but it still feels good to hear it. A few of my students have said I’m mean, or not fair, but I always have several other students who back me up, it’s great.

School is not the only thing going great, all is also well in the sports world. I love BYU football and to have them ranked #7 is pretty awesome. We had over 25 people at our apartment the day we beat then #3 Oklahoma. I can honestly say that it was the best atmosphere I have ever been in for a game I watched on TV. We only had 20 people here for our 54-3 victory yesterday, it was still really fun though. I look forward to our first home game!

We have also started intramurals again! Our soccer team may be the best I have ever played with. We had a tie our first game, I wasn’t very happy about it. I actually ran six miles after the game because I was frustrated. It was nice getting to play though. We also have some girls in our ward that are really good and we have been playing a lot with them.

The NBA season is just around the corner and our flag football team has it’s first game soon. It has been nice to be able to get excited about the local sports teams. John Stockton and Jerry Sloan were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this week. It brought back a lot of amazing memories as I watched highlights and interviews. Even more fun than watching sports though has been playing them. Hopefully we can get some basketball in along with everything else.

Another thing that has made life good is having our apartments full again. There are so many fun people in our ward. Also, for really the first time, we get along really well with all the guys in the ward. In past years it has sometimes seemed like they were the competition, this year they are our friends. The girls are great too, I love my ward!

Between school, sports, and sparks I have written enough I think. I could really go on for pages about why life is good. It’s easy to dwell on the bad in life, but there is so much that is good. Today is a day to be grateful, life is good, life is great, life is unbelievable.

Explosion!

My first full week of school ended with a bang. It had been a good day to cap off a great week. My birthday went well on Wednesday with Mrs. Bakers class making me a nice card and some much needed chocolate, Mrs. Martinek's class coming in to give me a special birthday poem and treats, Mr. C's class also came in and sang to me, he gave me a treat and also gave a treat to each of my students.

I also felt like about half the school came up to me and told me happy birthday. Kids I didn't even know walked up to me and told me happy birthday. A group of my girls from last year give me half of their cookie from lunch... I can't even list all of the nice things! That night when I got home we had a big party at my apartment complex which included food, a dance party, and a pool party.

Here I thought I had the best birthday in a long time when the next day at lunch I went to walk into my room. A mother and three of my kids were putting punch and cupcakes on all of the desks, they also gave me a gift card. When the lunch bell rang we had a belated birthday party for me. I felt like I was on top of the world, that is until two more mothers came in during recess an hour later with a giant Costco cake, now I really was on top of the world. They also felt bad that they hadn't been able to do something the day before. So when the kids came in from recess we had another unbirthday party. My kids seemed to think that every time they sung me Happy Birthday I got a year older, I believe I am up to at least 30 now.

That night I got a text from my friend saying that a group of us were going to Pirate Island. It is a new pirate themed pizza restaurant that my friend Sarah works at. It was way cool! They sung me happy birthday there as well, I got free ice cream! We ate a pizza that was so big that six of us could not finish it. It was delicious!

Today I had another girl bring in cookies, I wonder how long we can stretch this out? School ended and I was excited to start the weekend. I was really tired from waking up earlier and just running around crazy all week. I planned on hurrying home, eating something really quick, then jumping into bed for a nap. I was hoping that way I could have some more energy to play all night. My car though, had another plan.

It decided that I needed a little more excitement. As I entered the freeway I noticed there was a loud noise coming from the back side of my car. I thought, oh no, not a flat tire. I had never had one before so I wasn't quite sure. The car was driving fine so I figured I would get off the next exit. The noise stopped and so I thought that maybe nothing happened. Once I passed that exit the noise started again and I could tell that the car was not performing like it should. I decided I could make it to the next exit and continued to drive. After I excited I planned on making it to the first gas station but all of a sudden I heard a loud bang and I knew that it was no longer flat, I knew I would have to stop immediately.

There was a convenient place to pull over and so I got my car over to the side. I had never actually changed a tire, as I had never had a flat before to fix. I figured I had enough common sense to do so, but then I remembered that I had free road side assistance with my insurance. I figured if I have this feature why spend the time when someone else could. I called them up and sat in the back of my car and graded papers until they could get there, good thing I actually brought some work home with me today!

A few minutes later a lady walked up to my window and asked if I needed help, she said her husband was a mechanic. I said, sure that would be great, within one minute the tire was off, my spare tire was on and I was on my way. I love that there are so many amazing people like that!

I really lucked out that I made it that far, that it died at a spot that had a nice place to pull off and that someone was willing to help out someone in need. I didn't get home as fast as I had planned, but I was never stressed out over the situation. I knew everything would work out and it did. I have always had that confidence about life, it takes a lot to really get me down.

I have so many amazing friends and people that are looking out for me. I don't know why I am so blessed, but I'm not going to complain. It's been a good week and it ended with a bang! Bring it on weekend, bring it on.

Second Chance

This is my last week of summer. As sad as it is to come to that realization, I am ready to get going again. This past year was, by far, the hardest year of my life. Not only with being a first year teacher, but elders quorum president, relationships and everything else. It was also a great year, don't get me wrong, but it was very hard.

I am very excited to take what I learned from my first year of teaching and keep improving every day. I feel much more prepared this year. I have a lot more confidence and many great people around me that I can call my friends. This was not how I felt last year, especially a few months in.

I came in with high expectations, I have always excelled in the things that I do. When compared to my peers I was always right there with them or above. I scored in the top 15% on the Praxis without studying one minute, I had great reviews from student teaching and I was totally confident that I was going to be a great teacher. I have never really failed at anything or felt like I was not good at something.

Unfortunately, I was no longer among my peers when I started teaching. On my team I was the youngest, the only male, and the only one without children. So they all had a lot more experience working with children and teaching and life in general.

I didn’t feel like I could relate to anyone else at my school. I felt alone, I didn't know what I was doing, and all I heard was what I needed to do better, no, different. I tried hard, and I felt like I was a quick learner, but I honestly did have a long way to go. I officially was not great at something.

There were times where I just felt like I made a big mistake going into teaching, I was not good at it, I was ready to quit. I actually remember one night, thinking tomorrow I am going to tell them I quit. Of course, luckily, I didn’t. (I don’t know what I would have done, there was nothing else I wanted to do, I love teaching) I honestly thought they would have been glad if I did though.

I still don’t feel like I really “fit in” at school. I am still the only young single guy, but I can truly say that some of my best friends are teachers at Freedom Elementary. I don’t know how many times I went next door and talked to Stevie, or Dana. I also feel like I became good friends with the third grade team and several others. If I need someone to talk to I know so many people have my back. Our administration was so helpful as well, especially when we would have classes and they would teach us and tell us what they expected. Just like my students sometimes I needed to be taught as well.

Sometimes we all just need a second chance. No matter what I hear about my students I am about to get, I don’t worry about it. They get a second chance with me. I am glad I get a second chance, or year to be a teacher. I am confident, positive, and ready to excel. Hopefully this year it’s justified. Bring it on, i'm ready!