The Stockton clan keeps up tradition

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 20, 2006 | by Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Stockton name denotes basketball royalty in Spokane, thanks to NBA legend John Stockton.

His sons and nephews are carrying on the legacy.

John Stockton's three sons, Houston, Michael and David, play at private Gonzaga Prep High School, where their father was a star.

The sons of his older brother Steve are Steve Jr., who is a freshman at Whitworth College, plus Shawn, who plays for Ferris High School, and Riley, who attends Chase Middle School.

The games the close-knit clan doesn't look forward to are when the two opposing high schools square off.

"It's not a comfortable day when they play each other," John Stockton told The Spokesman-Review. "By the nature of it, you're forced to root against a member of your family. It's just hard. It's the most uncomfortable game of the year."

The family has a long legacy in athletics.

Great-grandfather Houston was a Gonzaga University football star who played in the National Football League. His son Jack Stockton is a co-owner of Jack and Dan's, a tavern near the Gonzaga campus that has been called among the best sports bars in the nation. Jack's son John Stockton is one of the top 50 NBA basketball players of all time.

The youngsters seem unfazed by it all.

"I don't know what life is any other way," said Michael, a Gonzaga Prep junior. "The only way I can explain it is it's normal to me."

His cousin, Shawn, agrees.

"People kind of expect you to be better," the Ferris athlete said, "but it really doesn't bother me. You take a lot of pride trying to do the best you can."

When all is said and done, a total of nine Stockton cousins will be playing with and against each other in the greater Spokane area for seven years at least.

The only unusual thing is that they are playing against each other.

Steve Stockton, Jr., the oldest of Steve and Mary Ann's three sons, became the first member of the family to eschew Gonzaga Prep when he enrolled at Ferris.

"Dad always said I had a choice and I wanted to go where my friends went, basically," said Steve Jr., who graduated last year and is a two-sport athlete at Whitworth.

Then John Stockton retired from the NBA and the family decided to return to Spokane.

"It was a very hard decision for us," he said. "We had lived 19 years most of the year in Utah and were very comfortable there."

But roots are roots and true to them, the Stockton children enrolled at Gonzaga Prep.

John and Nada Stockton did their best, he said, to balance his career and family, which includes six children.

"We tried to provide options and keep balance for them. If they so chose we'd be going to concerts instead of games," he said.