John Stockton Doesn't Think The Jazz Are Trying to Win

One of the most famous players in Utah Jazz history, John Stockton says that the team has essentailly stopped trying to win. 

If you were to rank the most important players in Utah Jazz history, Stockton would be considered to be either number one or two. So when Stockton says something about the franchise, people should probably pay attention. 

It can be hard in the NBA, especially when you are a small-market franchise, to stay successful for a long period of time. And getting caught in the cycle of drafting in the lottery and hoping for the best has been the Jazz's strategy for quite a while now. 

Stockton thinks that it is unsustainable. He said during an appearance on the Ultimate Assist podcast:

"I haven’t been tracking them. I know that there doesn’t seem to be a mission to win. Iff that's true, that's frustrating, because I think that culture is so hard to come by, I know how hard it was for the Utah Jazz to become a winning organization to begin with, and I came in on the tail end of that. I got to build from that with my teammates."

The Jazz have been tanking for years, but it hasn't quite worked out for the team yet. Tbe team was terrible in 2024-25 and finished with the worst record in the NBA. But that tank job didn't land them Cooper Flagg or anything close. The team ended up with the fifth overall selection and drafted forward Ace Bailey out of Rutgers.