‘He’s his own person’: Sam Stockton’s final year at Eastern Washington represents end of era for preeminent basketball family

Considering the name on the back of his Eastern Washington jersey, it’s not a surprise that Sam Stockton ended up playing college basketball.

As the sixth – and youngest – child of an NBA Hall of Famer and a Division I college volleyball player, Stockton spent many a weeknight and weekend in gymnasiums, watching his older brothers and sisters play and filling idle time by shooting basketballs at unused hoops.

Although Stockton’s love of the game cannot help but be inspired by his father’s legacy – his father was also, for a time, his coach – John Stockton wasn’t Sam’s only inspiration.

“Seeing my brother and sisters choose this path, everyone has been an athlete, and I looked up to them,” Sam Stockton said this week. “I got the dream of playing college hoops from my siblings.”

Through that lens, this week’s games at Reese Court – and, depending on Eastern Washington’s performance, an indeterminate number of games to follow – will also mark the end of an era, because at least until the next generation of Stocktons grows up a bit more, next year, for the first time in many years, there will not be a Stockton playing high school or college basketball.

“I love watching him out there competing and always have,” John Stockton said of Sam. “As a family, a lot of us have played, and it’s fun to watch.”

John and Nada Stockton have been constant figures this season at Eastern Washington men’s basketball games – home and away – just as they were at Lewis-Clark State games last year, which they thought might be Sam’s last.

It was a pattern set as they raised their older children: daughters Lindsay and Laura, and sons Houston, Michael and David, whose games John and Nada attended as regularly as possible, especially toward the end of each child’s playing careers.

“This year’s been a bonus,” John Stockton said. “We didn’t expect to have this chance to watch.”

Glance up in the stands and the stoicism of John Stockton immediately stands out. He rarely claps or otherwise emotes outwardly, though his attention is ever on the court.

“When one kid is out there playing, he’s just as focused as we are,” Sam Stockton said. “He’s focused on what the competition is doing. It’s just like he’s on the court again.”

Sam’s dad said his son’s perspective sounded just about right.

“He’s pretty close,” John Stockton said. “I don’t seem to enjoy games the way most people do. I don’t feel myself on the court, but when I watch it isn’t just for the fun of it. I’m just trying to figure stuff out. I watch it more seriously.”

Since his days at Gonzaga Prep, Sam Stockton has been comfortable in a reserve role on whichever team he’s played for.

In the record books for the 2019 State 4A tournament, Stockton’s name appears twice. He’s seventh on the field-goal percentage list, and he’s tied for first on the free-throw percentage list.

The raw numbers? He was 2 for 3 from the field and 1 for 1 at the line.

“I try to make the best shots when I am out there,” Stockton said. “I always feel like I am out there with people who are better than me. Like that team had (future Gonzaga player) Anton (Watson), so the best thing I could do to help that team was get the ball to Anton.”

That approach worked: Gonzaga Prep won the state title, earning Sam a distinction among his siblings.

Of the six, only he and Laura won state championships in high school.

“I got bragging rights on them,” Sam said.

By the time Sam Stockton was making his decision about where to go to college, he had seen his siblings go a variety of directions. Michael played at Westminster, an NAIA school when he played there from 2007 to 2011. David and then Laura played basketball at Gonzaga. Lindsay played at Montana State. Houston defied the family pattern and played football at Montana.

It was freeing, Sam said, to see so many paths forward. After grayshirting for a year at Gonzaga, Sam Stockton chose to enroll and play at LCSC in Lewiston.

“For me coming out of high school, I didn’t feel like I let anyone down by going to NAIA,” Sam Stockton said with a nod to Michael, who went on to play more than a decade professionally in Europe.

His first year at LCSC was the COVID-19 season, which meant that Stockton basically got an extra year of eligibility. As he entered his fourth season there in 2023-24, when he made 25 starts and led the Warriors in field-goal percentage (61.1), assists (93) and steals (45), he knew he had one more year to potentially play elsewhere.

When Dan Monson was named head coach at EWU last spring, Stockton recognized that he might have an opportunity to play for the Eagles.

Monson, who had known the Stockton family for decades, was happy to have him.

“He’s got a great feel for the game,” Monson said. “He impacts the game so much more than from a stat sheet, from his leadership to his decision-making to being in the right place and understanding angles and concepts of the game of basketball.”

After playing limited minutes early in the season, Stockton has started seven of the team’s past eight games, something Monson said the point guard had earned. He’s scored only 42 points all season, but his 40 assists far outweigh his 16 turnovers. Stockton (18 steals) and Tyler Powell (19 steals, 15 turnovers) are the only players on the roster who have more steals than turnovers.

Monson first was an assistant coach at Gonzaga in 1988, four years after John Stockton graduated from Gonzaga (Don Monson, Dan’s father, tried recruiting Stockton to play at Idaho). Throughout their lives, their paths have crossed often. Dan Monson remembers Stockton children grabbing at his sport coat as he was trying to propose to Darci, his wife.

The timelines of their careers meant that Dan Monson never really knew Sam Stockton as a child, but their time together this season has confirmed much of what Monson likes about the Stocktons: They let their kids be kids.

“Sam Stockton is Sam Stockton, not son of John,” Monson said. “He’s his own person, his own player. … (John and Nada) have let him have his own career, just as with the other five. They’ve all had their own unique path. They’ve just been a good partnership in raising good people and also good athletes.”

Looking toward this week’s home games, Sam said he imagines they will go just as the previous ones have, with his family watching intently from the stands and then sharing thoughts, laughs and a meal afterward.

His parents have been to so many games that Stockton sees it entirely as a positive when they are in the crowd.

So long as he plays hard, he knows his dad will be pretty happy, Sam said.

“I don’t feel too much pressure wearing the Stockton jersey, or that because my dad was so good I need to be a certain way,” Stockton said. “There are things I want to uphold, like giving it my all, the intangibles, always trying to do more with less, making the team better. As long as I can do that, then I’m happy with how the game goes.”