most people don't have.

While only 6'1, he had very long arms, extremely huge hands, big feet that helped keep him balanced, and an awesome leg/spine ratio. His quick twitch muscle fibers were on display with his first step all the time. It was elite compared to most people.

I went to a jazz game once where they had a display that featured stockton. It had an outline of his body that you could step into it and compare yourself on. I was a tiny bit taller but when I stretched my arms out sideways with his, his reached way past mine. Even with my wingspan being about an inch and a half longer than my height. When I put my hands up to his, his dwarfed mine. Being able to palm the ball is invaluable when wanting to be a pinpoint passer. If he was the exact same person he was, but with smaller hands, he wouldn't have been as elite of a passer as he was imo. When I put my shoes inside the outline of his shoes, his dwarfed mine.

"Stockton may be uniquely suited to recover. From a purely clinical standpoint, he is a marvel even to doctors. His resting heart rate is 35 beats per minute — half that of a relatively well-conditioned male. That trait alone allows him to recover while standing at the free throw line; other players must take timeouts or sit out to catch their breath. His cardiovascular system, lung capacity and blood pressure are far superior to even that of most athletes."

"His body is, well, very efficient. His capillaries, how the oxygen exchanges through his lungs, his heart rate, blood pressure. He's a heck of an athlete as far as the human body is concerned. His body is very efficient."

"He doesn't sweat, says Jeff Condill, a Gonzaga teammate."

Stockton may have had twice the lung capacity as other players but obviously due to time constraints, etc, didn't have to do twice the time of work to have that lung capacity. There have been many players who have gone to extremes to get in shape, but still fall short of a Stockton type.

Some people think being in his kind of shape just comes from mental fortitude and pushing themselves to work out harder and longer than everyone else. That we start on an equal playing field and those with the right mental traits are the ones who make it.

But it's actually the opposite. Stockton quit workouts when he became exhausted, just like anyone else. But because his gifted heart and lungs became exhausted less easily than almost anyone else, he could keep working out for longer than anyone else (even if not twice as long) and recover quicker to work out again, thus extending that natural cardiovascular lead over time.

Not all heart and lungs are created equal. His were superior.

Also, most people like to do what they notice they are good at. If a person notices they have a knack for painting or piano or being comparatively cardiovascularly superior to their peers, they are going to enjoy continuing to develop that trait. That's where they develop the mental fortitude for that thing.

On top of all of that, Stockton obviously had the mental aptitude for basketball as well.

Because when you have the physical traits, it often gives you confidence, which helps you build the mental traits.

I can make a good case for Chris Paul and others too. But this is already too long.

Matthew Dellavedova was a fine athlete and his mind took him as far as his body allowed him to. If he would have had a more gifted body, he would have gone further than he did. All-pro, etc. It wasn't his mind that held him back, it was his body.

Also, I would count natural coordination as part of being a great athlete. All these people we're talking about I would bet were born with greater amounts of natural coordination than most.

Again, when people notice that they are coordinated, they tend to keep doing those types of things which makes them even better at it. I noticed that in myself as a kid and it spurred me on to keep going. Some of my friends had no desire because they became cognizant of the fact that they weren't very coordinated. Same thing happens in singing all of the time.

A person could come along and look backward in time and say oh look, that kid kept working at it and had the capability traits and those other kids didn't display them so it must be mental. But really it was spurred on in the first place from feeling coordinated in the first place. That doesn't sound clear but I'm not going to fix it:).

Really smart athletes who don't make it are a dime a dozen but really athletic athletes who don't make it are a dollar a dozen.:). In my estimation.

Now that I have convinced you, I thank you for the last word.:).;).

You're great. Sorry for being a pest/annoying.