https://youtu.be/fq1-g9HETaI
In case you haven’t been following, Joe Ingles recently surpassed John Stockton for most threes made in Jazz franchise history. That doesn’t sound like much, but catching Stockton in any sort of raw statistic is a huge accomplishment because Stockton played a million years for the Jazz and never (barely exaggerating here) missed a game. Stockton and Malone are the unconquerable kings of Jazz stats, unless you’re looking at blocks (Mark Eaton could still average a block per game I think) or block percentage (Ekpe Udoh also could still average a block per game I think) or triple-doubles (god-dammit those Pete Maravich ones from New Orleans SHOULDN’T COUNT) or those efficiency stats that make Rudy Gobert look like a surefire HOFer.
Though if we’re being honest, I wouldn’t have thought that Stockton would’ve been the leader for the Jazz in terms of raw threes. Obviously he played for an eternity, but it was an eternity where people didn’t just shoot threes all the time, and if they did, they were named Darrell Griffith. I thought it was gonna be, like, Mehmet Okur or something. That would’ve been way cooler, for a schlubby Australian to surpass a schlubby Turk for three-pointer supremacy.
Like Stockton and Malone (just ignore his year with the Lakers, just forget about it, it never happened, we’re all in agreement here that he was a Jazz lifer) before him, it looks like Ingles is going to spend his whole NBA career in Utah (again, we’re going to ignore that preseason he had with the Clippers, which is just as faint in my memory as Nikoloz Tskitishvili’s recent-ish preseason stint with them). He got a bit of a late start, what with not even getting drafted (or even considered to be drafted), but I would say that he is emblematic of this era of Jazz basketball. Is that fair to say? Does he represent an entire era of Jazz history? Him and maybe Rudy Gobert. Throw in Donovan Mitchell if you want, but Ingles is way, WAY radder than those two dudes. Ingles is Australia/Utah personified. So hangdog. So balding. If they don’t at least retire his jersey I’m going to come over to Salt Lake City, riding my wallaby which I will by that point have acquired from Australia, and hang up his jersey in the rafters by myself. Along with Greg Ostertag’s.
Ingles’ hold on the Jazz three-point record grew just a little bit more unconquerable with the addition of 7 more threes in this game. Before, it was maybe feasible for Stockton to come out of retirement, hobble onto the court, stand still in the corner, and hit some more threes. Now, he’s 20 threes behind. It would take almost a whole season of him standing in a corner for him to get that many. Ingles only has to worry about Mitchell, or Gordon Hayward making a triumphant return to the franchise that never should’ve let him slip away, who are both 200-ish threes behind.
By the way, I am not mad AT ALL about Ingles totally torching the Bucks with a career-high in points and a career-high in threes made. Why am I not mad, you ask? Simple: it’s because I’m not mad. EVEN A LITTLE BIT. Nope. Don’t even worry about it. Because I’m not mad.