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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
February 14, 2019     Shelton Mason County Journal
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February 14, 2019
 
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~ + + Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A-23 ABOVE: The Mason County Timberwolves, a Special Olympics basketball team from Shelton, recently won its division at a regional tournament in Bremerton. RIGHT: The Mason County County Lumberjacks, standing, and Mason County Climbers also competed at the tournament, and finished third and second, respectively. Courtesy photos Three 5heiton-area teams place at regional 5pedal Olympics tourney By Justin Johnson justin@masoncounty com Winning was great, but. accomplishments were secondary for a trio of Shelton-area Spe- cial Olympic basketball teams that competed recently at a regional-level competition in Bremerton. Each team finished in the top three of its di- vision. The Mason County Timberwolves, coached by Nate Sartori, won its division at the tourna- ment. The Timberwolves earned a berth in the second-round of regional play, but this week- end's snowstorm cancelled that portion Of ac- tion, and this year's state tournament partici- pants were instead drawn randomly from a hat. "I was especially impressed with my team's sportsmanship and teamwork. We won by a wide margin in each of our three games. Each game, my team tried to exercise sportsmanship by allowing the other team a chance to make baskets, in the spirit of the Special Olympics," Sartori said. "They also passed the ball around very well. In each of the games, every player scored at least one basket. They worked well as a team to make that happen. For example, if someone hadn't scored yet, they would keep passing the ball to that individual to give them a chance to score." Sartori's team went 3-0 at the tournament. A second team, the Mason County Climb- ers, coached by Scotti Crump, finished second in its division. The Climbers won their first two games, one by two points and the second in over- time, before falling in the championship game. Crump's team was drawn to compete at the state tournament. The third team, the Mason County Lumber- jacks, coached by Ron Wilks, finished third, go- ing 1-1 in two games. "For me the spirit of Special Olympics (is) providing everyone a chance to succeed and have fun, including the opposing team. I was very proud and impressed with how my athletes competed at this competition." Sartori also wanted to thank the members of the community that made the drive to Bremer- ton to support the teams. Students from Shel- ton High School, along with school staff and parents, cheered on the three teams, including making signs to show their support. Rockets' point guard Chris Paul took a step up the National Basketball Association's (NBA) career assist charts on Monday night against Dallas Paul had 11 assists in the game, giving him 8,972 for his career - a mark that sits in eighth place on the NBA's career list. That leaves Paul over 6,800 assists behind all-time leader John Stockton. Stockton, a Gonzaga University graduate and Washington native, racked up incredible an 15,806 assists in a legendary 19-year Hall-of- Fame career with the Utah Jazz. After Monday's game, Paul -- in his 14th NBA season -- took a jab at the B . N A s all-hme assists king. "I don't like saying never, but ,ain't nobody catching that, Paul told-the Wash- ington Post's Ben Golliver of Stockton s record .after the game. "I don't know who did By JUSTIN the statistics in Utah." JOHNSON (I digress here, I'm a Utah native and came of sports age at the height of Stock- ton's career as he helped propel the Jazz to back-to-back NBA Finals ap- pearances in 1997 and 1998.) That being said, suggesting that Stockton's record is somehow tainted by a home scorekeep- er cooking the books is irksome to say the least. Chris Paul missed 23 games this season. That's more games than John Stockton missed in his entire 19-year NBA career. Stockton played the full 82-game NBA sched- ule, plus playoff games, in 17of his 19 seasons suiting up for the Jazz. In all, during the course of 19 years, he missed just 22 games, and 18 of those came at the start of the 1997-98 season- as he recovered from an injured MCL in his left knee, suffered in a preseason game. Paul on the other hand has only had one sea- son in which he played the full 82 games. If there was one way that Stockton was blessed on the court, it was that fellow Utah Jazz superstar Karl Malone was the No. 2 scorer in NBA history, and the duo played more than 1,400 games together through the course of 18 seasons. Only four other NBA players have ever played more than 1,400 games. Paul's suggestion that somehow the Utah Jazz team statisticians favored Stockton doesn't seem to hold much weight. An user on Reddit came up witha list that measured home and away assists differential for the top 50 all-time assist leaders in the NBA. According that table, Stockton averaged 10.88 assists in 751 home games and 10.14 in 753 road games. Keep in mind, however, that for much of Stockton's career, the Jazz were one of the NBA's best home teams and several times had the best home-court record in the league. That means extra points and extra possessions. ls it fair to say that Stockton never got the benefit of a "homer" assist? Definitely not, but one can likely say that about any player. According to the same chart, Paul actually has a larger differential percentage between home' assists and away assists. Chris Paul is a great NBA player, one of the best guards in the game today. His failure to reach John Stockton's lofty re- cords, however, aren't due to some cooked books. It's because Paul is Mr. Glass compared to Stockton's Iron Man. Justin Johnson is the sports reporter for the Shelton-Mason County Journal and is quick to take offense if someone disses his favorite players. He can be reached at justin@masoncounty.com 4