Bad Break For Stockton

PORTLAND - Moments after he entered Monday night's game against Canada, John Stockton collided with Michael Jordan while they retreated to defend a fast break.

Stockton fell heavily to the floor. He stayed in the game for the next offensive trip, but the knot he felt in his right leg wouldn't loosen.

"I'm OK," Stockton told Ed Lacerte, Team USA trainer, when he went to the bench. Quickly it became obvious he wasn't.

"I could tell there was something wrong with Stockton because he never comes out of a game, then says he's not going back in," said Karl Malone, his Utah Jazz and Team USA teammate.

Late that night, Stockton learned he had fractured his right fibula, the smaller of the two leg bones below the knee.

"As much running and cutting and stuff as he does, I consider this a really serious injury," Malone said. "He's not like a big guy who can get down in the hole and sort of wallow around. He's the guy out there making it happen all the time.

"Knowing him, I know he's going to be in Barcelona, but I don't want him doing anything crazy. I've got to play with the guy six, seven more years. If it's the gold medal he wants, he can have mine. I don't care, as long as he lets me touch it every now and again."

Stockton will miss the rest of the Tournament of the Americas, and his status for Barcelona is on hold.

"One thing I know about John: He'll go all out, almost to a fault, he's such a competitor," Jerry Sloan, Stockton's coach at Utah, said yesterday. "It doesn't surprise me that he told the trainer he was OK. The thing John kept saying at lunch Monday was how much fun he was having - how great he felt being part of this team."

A broken leg, a busted dream are the nightmares of every NBA coach and owner with a player on Team USA. Your superstar goes down. Your future grows bleak. Your heart sinks.

Stockton has fractured his fibula. Patrick Ewing is playing with a dislocated thumb. Larry Bird missed his second straight game last night, a 112-52 pasting of Panama, with his bad back.

Was this Dream Team such a good idea? Are NBA owners, who have so many millions invested in this talent, going to think twice in 1996?

"The owners have agreed to this team," Sloan said. "You can't say you agree and then say you won't allow your players to play. That would be selfish.

"You can't do anything about injuries like this. It's part of the business. Players are going to stay in condition anyway. Injuries are always a possibility. I'd rather John play at this level, then in a pickup game. The risk of injury is much greater when you play against guys who don't know how to play. These guys know how to play."

Wealthy players get hurt, and their teammates worry about injury. Is the gold medal worth risking a career-ending bump in the night?

"Injuries cross your mind here," Malone said. "You can't think about it all the time, though. You hate to say, `If it's going to happen, it's going to happen,' but that's how you feel. I think you've just got to block it out and play."

It is sadly ironic that Stockton might miss the Games in Barcelona. He was one of the last cuts from the 1984 gold medal team. That year, head coach Bob Knight kept Steve Alford, his Indiana point guard, over Stockton, who was a little-known firebrand from Gonzaga.

"It's real tough. He tried out for the team with me in '84 and didn't make it," Malone said. "Then to have an injury like this after he has played eight NBA seasons and only missed four games, man. It's hard for a friend to know what to say. You can't tell him it's all right, because obviously, it's not."

Getting cut in 1984 was final for Stockton, but he says getting injured in 1992 isn't.

"I don't feel without hope, by any means," Stockton said. "I feel very good about my chances. Yesterday, when it all happened, it felt very similar to being cut in '84. But today I feel very confident that I'm going to be playing."

Maybe because of 1984, maybe because he is 30 years old and figures this is his last chance at gold, going to Barcelona is vitally important to Stockton.

"I don't intend to risk my career, because I think a lot of people, the Utah Jazz in particular, should have a say in that," Stockton said. "But the Olympic Games has been a dream of mine since I was a child. It's extremely, extremely important to me. It's one of the most important things in my life. If it's necessary to play with pain, I intend to do it."

Stockton is playing beat the clock. The deadline for submitting the U.S. Olympic roster is July 15.

Bet on him to beat the clock.