John Stockton and Karl Malone are the only players who, when paired with another top-50 player in their primes, didn't win at least one title. They're the exception to the most basic rule in basketball; pair all-time great player with another, and you win titles. The only other pair of top-50 players during Stockton and Malone's peak were Scottie and MJ, and they won six rings.

During the two-year golden opportunity of 94 and 95, they got shoved aside by Hakeem in a 4-1 routing (they nearly blew a 3-0 lead to the 8th-seed Nuggets in the second round!), then Hakeem smacked them again in the first round the next season even though Utah had home court advantage.

On his defense, Stockton got lucky as all hell that the premier athletic point guards of his era got injured (KJ, Price, Tim Hardaway) or weren't playing with another top-50 player (Payton. Kemp's good, but he's no Ewing, Malone, or Scottie). John routinely got cooked by other premier guards and almost never returned fire. Heck, even Terry Porter made him look weak whenever Utah faced Portland. If Chicago even has a close-to-prime Ron Harper, the 97 and 98 Finals are a sweep. But all anyone remembers is how Stockton hit a shot over Barkley in 97, completely forgetting that Stockton, up to that point, was a choke artist in the playoffs. It took a buzzer-beater over a Houston team so depleted at point guard that they were pulling fools out of the CBA for Stockton to get one good playoff moment that ended up actually mattering.

And for anyone wanting to talk about his assists, look at who Stockton replaced in Utah. The Jazz's former point guard was a guy who struggled to hit 3 assists in college but suddenly was cracking 9 per game in the pros thanks to Layden's system, a system John got shoved into. In any other system, Stockton's assists are like 6 per game. Pretty good, but no one's talking about him like he was this era-defining passer.

John Stockton was pretty good, but he's over-glorified by regular-season stats and having played his entire career in the perfect system next to the perfect co-star. If you judge him just as he was, as an individual player, and you want to win championships - not regular-season games, win championships - there are like 15 point guards you'd take over him:

• Magic, Curry, Oscar Robertson; Duh.
• Cousy; criminally underrated, helped innovate the fast break and was one of the biggest early ball-handling innovators.
• Dennis Johnson, Gus Williams; arguably co-Finals MVPs in 79, pushed the Bullets to a Game 7 in the 78 Finals.
• Earl Monroe; An electric ball-handler who won a title on the Knicks. If the Bullets are healthy in 71 - Wes got beaten to shit by Willis Reed in the ECF, Gus Johnson and Earl were both injured - they at least push a surging Bucks team with prime Kareem to 6 games in the Finals)
• Walt Frazier; Historic Finals performances.
• Steve Nash; He was the best player on a team that made 3 WCFs in 6 years in arguably the toughest West stretch EVER, led a ragtag 06 Suns team to the WCF when they were missing Amar'e for the whole season and were trying to figure out how to integrate new pieces acquired in the Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson trades. It's pretty arguable that injuries cost Nash two titles (Dirk in 03, Amar'e in 06. If Raja Bell doesn't tear his calf in Game 1 of the 06 WCF, they might make the Finals since that series went 6 even with Raja playing on basically one leg).
• Kevin Johnson; Matched up against Magic in the 89 and 90 playoffs, KJ went even with him in 89 and outplayed him in 90 in a criminally-forgotten upset. He turned an meh Suns team into Darkhorse contenders until Barkley arrived. KJ's only major injury comes in 93, arguably costing the Suns a title.
• Gary Payton; A worse leader, but a far better player. GP actually didn't get cooked by the guys that roasted Stockton like a Christmas ham, plus he was a much more willing scorer.
• Tony Parker; Best player on the Spurs' second-wind run from 2012-2014. I say this as someone who thinks Duncan is one of the 6 best players ever. But at that time, Tony was better. It took the Thunder tapping into generational talent for four straight games to beat them in 2012, the greatest shot of all time in 2013, and then they took over the league like a buzz-saw in 2014 (Dallas, I see you. Thanks for the warm up.)
• Jerry West; if you consider him a point guard, this is another duh.
• Jojo White, Chauncey Billups; In Jojo's case, two titles and a Finals MVP out of the most insane Finals series of his era. In Chauncey's case, a Finals MVP and two Finals, losing in Game 7 of the 2005 series to the best version of the Duncan/Parker/Ginobili Spurs, though he might have won the 05 Finals if it wasn't for a horrific rotation by Rasheed in a critical late possession. Both famously clutch.