Could John Stockton Still Play for the Utah Jazz?

Revelations from a recent pre-draft workout session have left me to dream about John Stockton making a miraculous return to the Utah Jazz.

Have your tin foil hats at the ready, Jazz Nation. We’re about to get weird.

After missing the playoffs by just one game last season, the Utah Jazz left fans with a healthy helping of what-if scenarios to haunt them throughout the offseason. While I’ve spent as much time as anybody wondering what might have been, I’ve got a what-if proposition of a whole different color for you today.

Think Rod Serling/Twilight Zone different. An Elseworlds tale akin to Batman hunting Jack the Ripper in 1889 or Superman as a defender of Stalin in Soviet Russia. For the record, both of those stories actually exist. By comparison, the Jazz-centric yarn we’re spinning today is pretty tame. So here goes…

Submitted for your approval, I present the story of a quinquagenarian hoops star making an improbable NBA return more than a decade after hanging up the hi-tops.

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Imagine, if you will, a world where John Stockton, Utah’s long-retired Hall of Fame point guard, is still balling with the best of them at the ripe, old age of 54. Crazy right? Well, apparently that’s the world were living in right now. Just ask former Gonzaga sharpshooter Kyle Wiltjer.

While in Salt Lake City for a pre-draft workout with the Jazz, Wiltjer told the assembled media that he played pick-up basketball with Stockton and that the Jazz legend could still bring the same competitive fire he exhibited as a perennial NBA All-Star–

"“My redshirt year, we played a lot of what we called Sunday ball. Every Sunday we played pickup, a year and a half ago. He could still bring it. If it’s game point, he’s going to foul you, whatever it takes. He’s a competitor. It’s really cool to see that. It’s what made him so special.”"

Wiltjer continued–

"“It’s tough when you’re on the losing side, but when you’re on his team, he’ll throw you dimes.”"

So, if Stockton can still hang with high-level college players, imagine him throwing those dimes in the blue, green and gold of the Utah Jazz for 10 or so minutes each night.

Believe it or not, it wouldn’t be the first time a legendary point guard made the return from a years-long retirement. The NBA’s original superstar point man with a pass-first mentality, Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy, managed to do it in 1969.

After 13 straight All-Star appearances, six championships and a league MVP award, the Cooz called it quits in 1963. Seven years later, Cousy was coaching the Cincinnati Royals when he decided to hit the hardwood once again. Cousy would go on to appear in seven games for the Royals during the 1969-70 season.

Now, I know what you’re saying–“Cousy was only 41!” or “Nobody is doing anything like that today.” Well, I’ll see that and raise you a Julio Franco and a Robert Jaworski.

Franco you probably know–he was a star shortstop and second basemen for the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers during the 80s and early 90s. But did you know he’s still playing today, at 57 years old?

In the last decade, he was still hanging on as a regular player for the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets as a late fortysomething and even became the oldest player ever to hit a grand slam. Now, as he creeps ever closer to 60, he’s a player-manager for the Ishikawa Million Stars in Japan.

Jaworski, meanwhile, is one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the Philippines. In 1997, he concluded a legendary career that began in the 70s by playing in 20 games for Gordon’s Gin Boars of the Philippine Basketball Association at the age of 51.

Next: Pre-Draft Workout Features Prospects Foreign and Familiar

So, as outlandish as a Stockton return might sound, equally strange things have happened.

Does our crazy, what-if scenario have any bearing in reality? Not really, but I, for one, can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have No. 12 playing third string behind Dante Exum and Raul Neto in a Franco-esque player-coach role.

Our point guard situation couldn’t get any worse, right?

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