Insider Special: Basketball IQ

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Basketball IQ

By Terry Brown

Friday, February 28 Updated 11:49 AM EST

If John Stockton were to leave a train station moving half as fast as your average NBA player and jumping one-third the height of your typical high school phenom, then how in the world would he, 19 years later, be the league's all-time leader in assists and steals?

Solve that mathematical word problem and you'll begin to understand why more NBA scouts believe that a 6-foot-1 point guard from Gonzaga University is the smartest player on the court today.

Stockton

"He gets more out of his physical abilities than any other player in the game because he's crafty as [censored]," said one of those scouts. "There isn't another player out there who understands the game, his team or any other team better than John Stockton. He's too old to run anymore, never could jump, but if you saw him last week, driving to the hole against Shaquille O'Neal, then angling his body to not only kiss the ball off the glass but get the foul, then you know what I'm talking about."

We told our NBA scouts to throw vertical jumps and 40-yard dashes out the window. We didn't want video tape on textbook jumpers or game notes on perimeter man-to-man defense. We began our search for the highest basketball IQ by making sure that they didn't pass along any SAT scores or post-graduate honors, either.

We simply wanted to know who had the most beautiful mind on the court today.

"Isn't it obvious," said another scout. "John Stockton is going to the Hall of Fame for one reason. There are lots of players who get there on their physical abilities, lots of players who get there because of their work ethic, and John, of course, has both of those characteristics to some degree. But above all else, he is smart. No, I mean really smart. From the way he handles game situations to how he reacts to the referees to his offseason regimen. No one does it smarter."

Steve Nash and Sam Cassell got some votes. So did Jason Kidd and Gary Payton, of course.

"These players are effective as anyone because they're maximizing their abilities by using their heads," said another NBA scout. "But most of the time, they get overlooked because they don't make that ooh-ahh play. They just get the job done."

But there seemed to be another player out there primed to take his place in the pantheon of court scholars among other great Naismith laureates at the ripe old age of 26.

"Let me tell you why before I mention his name," said another scout. "Angles. Of course he's talented. Of course, he's big. But the way he blocks shots, the way he moves his feet, and, obviously, the way he uses the glass when he shoots. He plays the angles. He uses his brains."

Already an NBA champion. Already an NBA MVP. Already underestimated, or is under appreciated, because he has neither an arrest record nor rap album to go along with his 22.9 career point per game average or 12.2 rebounds on 50 percent shooting.

Duncan

"I think the smartest player in the game is Tim Duncan," said the scout. "And I absolutely believe that he is overlooked out there by a lot of fans because we've become so enamored of flashy play rather than substance."

Think about it for a second.

Would the smartest player in the game today draw unnecessary attention to himself, thereby inviting further exposure and attention to his strengths and weaknesses and the inevitable discovery of an antidote.

Or does he say as little as possible, force you to focus on the shorts he's wearing instead of the pass he's making. He'll drive to the hoop this way, that way, probing, luring, waiting for the right moment, the right position, to slip a simple bounce bass into the post just before the buzzer sounds but never leaving enough details behind to spoil it for the next game.

Or was it the no-look to the guy cutting back door that froze you two quarters later for fear of it happening again?

It very nearly borders on arrogance if you could only put your finger on it.

"I think a lot of it has to do with people, themselves, being able to understand enough about the game to really appreciate what level these players are operating on," said one of the scouts.

With less than 2:31 left in the game, your team up or down by four or five points, does your point guard know how many possessions are left in the game with the 24-second clock ticking and a referee along the baseline who has a tendency to call hand-checks in the paint when cutters are coming off screens . . .

Or is he too busy admiring his cross-over in the mirror?

Pick and roll. Pick and roll. Pick and roll. Don't worry, they argue. You'll never use this stuff after high school.

Whom. Not who.

You know he's good. You know he's great. But in 900 words or less, single-spaced and spell-checked, can you explain why what you don't know about Stockton can kill you on the basketball court?