Preface
In basketball, the five most important statistics are scores, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, among which steals can also show the player's defensive ability to a certain extent. There have also been many steals in the history of the NBA, who have a high ball quotient on the court to judge the opponent's passing line, coupled with a quick eye, so they tend to contribute to this aspect every game.
Up to now, there are a total of 13 players in history who have more than 2000+ steals, such as Jordan, James and others we are familiar with, but Stockton is the absolute king in this field, he has contributed a total of 3265 steals in his career, which is 581 times ahead of Kidd, who is in second place, which is completely unique.
So how valuable is Stockton's record? He played 19 seasons in the NBA, averaging 2.2 steals per game, and at his peak he averaged at least three steals per game in three seasons. If you compare this season's players, Alexander, who is currently at the top of the steals list, is only averaging 2.1 steals per game, which is not even as high as Stockton's career steals per game.
In addition, Stockton's career life is far greater than that of most stars, he played 19 seasons in his career, and his 1,504 appearances are the fifth highest in history, and this attendance also makes his total steals accumulate very high. Players like Jordan and Alvin Robertson are not bad at stealing, but their career appearances are too bad compared to Stockton, otherwise they would have had a chance to catch up.
If you want to surpass Stockton, you need to have both personal ability and career length, and you have to meet both of them to have a chance to beat this record. However, it seems that most of the current players may not have this possibility, and only he has a slight chance.
Two-time DPOY Leonard missed
As the only active forward player who has won the DPOY, Leonard has been elected DPOY twice has proved his defensive strength, relying on a pair of long arms and big hands, Leonard's offensive players against him are not very afraid to dribble easily in front of him, and if he is not careful, he may be snatched away directly. Leonard had 1.3 steals in his first season in the league, and has been steadily improving since then, and he was elected DPOY for the first time in 2014-2015, a year when he averaged a career-high 2.3 steals per game.
However, although Leonard is strong enough, his attendance is too poor, he entered the league in 2011 and has played 13 seasons, but the number of appearances is only 696 games, in the middle Leonard has missed too many games due to injury, and he has only played more than 60+ games this season in the past five seasons. For this reason, Leonard basically completely missed the record of the all-time steal king, and his total steals so far is 1196, which is only ranked 100th in history, which is also a pity, because there is no way to get better honors due to injury.
But Leonard is only 32 years old now, although he can't win the steal king in the future, but if he can play another 6 seasons, according to his 60 games per season and an average of 1.5 steals per game, then he still has a chance to squeeze into the top 30 in the all-time steals list, but this difficulty is not small for him, and whether he can play for so long is one thing.
6-time steal king Paul unfortunately lost the election
If you only look at the stats, Paul is definitely the closest player to Stockton on the active roster, he currently ranks third all-time with 2,611 steals, and he is likely to surpass Kidd, who is second all-time by the end of his career. However, Paul is also 39 years old now, and it will be too difficult for him to continue to catch up with Stockton, and he can still contribute 1.2 per game with the Warriors this season, which is too obvious compared to his peak self, before this season, Paul only averaged less than 1.5 steals per game in the 2020-2021 season.
In addition to offense, Paul was also the top defender in his prime, and he was once named the steal leader of the season 6 times, including 2.8 steals per game in the 2008-2009 season. And compared to many players who are just good stats, Paul is really effective on the defensive end, and he was named to the All-Defensive Team nine times as a young man, seven of which were also the best defensive team.
Although Paul is now in his 19th season, there is also a significant gap between his appearances and Stockton due to injuries. Paul has played a total of 1,269 games so far, and if he plays the same number as Stockton, then he can still hope to catch up with this record if he plays another season or two, but unfortunately it is no chance now.
Although James is comprehensive, he is slightly inferior in the end
As the player with the highest total steals on the active roster other than Paul, James has a total of 2,266 steals, ranking eighth all-time. In contrast, James is only ranked by virtue of the length of his career, and he only averaged more than two steals per game in the 2004-2005 season, when he was a sophomore and averaged 2.2 per game.
James' best season in this area was in 2011-2012, when he averaged 1.9 steals per game, and since then James' stats in this area have slowly declined. The 39-year-old James averages 1.1 steals per game, although he certainly can't break Stockton's record, but with his current state, there is still a lot of hope for him to surpass Pippen and Cheeks in the future, and even have a chance to hit Gary Payton's all-time fifth place.
The young player Alexander became the only possibility
Pick and choose, and among the current stars, only Alexander may be left with a chance, and the 25-year-old, who is averaging 2.2 steals per game this season, has basically booked the position of steal king in advance. Alexander's characteristics on the court are also tall and long-armed, and his physical condition is very outstanding among defenders, if he can maintain his current form and not get injured, he will most likely be elected steal king many times in the future.
However, even Alexander's chances of breaking this record are still very low, and he will have to keep up with his current track to have the slightest chance, and he will have to play at least 20 seasons in the league.