The Tape
Was Isiah Thomas better than John Stockton?
Isiah Thomas, 1981-1994, against John Stockton, 1984-2003. The numbers levelled to one league, then the call.
Method, stated plainly: scoring is adjusted to a league averaging 114 points per team per game. Rebounds and assists are printed as they were recorded, with the league scoring rate beside them, because a rebound in 1962 came out of a different number of missed shots and we will not pretend one multiplier fixes that. Career lines for active players run through 2024-25.
What the numbers say
Adjusted to a league averaging 114 points a game, Isiah Thomas is the bigger scorer: 21.8 a game in 1984-85 against 18.3 for John Stockton in 1989-90. That is a real gap of 3.5 points, not an era illusion — Isiah Thomas's league averaged 110.8 and John Stockton's averaged 107.
Away from scoring they are nearly the same player on paper: 4.5 and 2.6 rebounds, 13.9 and 14.5 assists. The separation is in what their teams asked of them, not what they could do.
Isiah Thomas: Two titles and a 13.9-assist season at 6 foot 1, in the most physical decade the league has had. John Stockton: The all-time leader in assists and steals, by margins that will not be closed this century.
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