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Feb. 4, 2022 - RFK Jr. The Defender
22:33
NBA Superstar John Stockton on the Fight for Freedom and Common Sense

NBA Legend John Stockton dishes it out

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Hey everybody, we have a very, very special guest today.
My friend John Stockton, one of the greatest John Stockton was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
He continues to hold the NBA records for most career assists and steals by wide margins.
In October 2021, Stockton was again honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by the NBA's 75th anniversary team.
John Stockton was a member of the Dream Team.
The 1992 team was the first U.S. Olympic And the basketball hall fan called it the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet.
Stockton also played on the 1996 U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team.
He won gold medals in 92 and 96.
He spent an entire NBA career as a point guard for the Utah Jazz, and the team made the playoffs in each of its 19 seasons.
In 1997 and 1998, together with his longtime friend and teammate Carl Malone, Stockton led the Jazz of the franchise's only two NBA final appearances, both of which were lost to the Chicago Bulls.
Stockton is a 10-time NBA All-Star, two-time Mays Smith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
And he is in the press recently or having his lifetime tickets provoked by his alma mater, Gonzaga University from their basketball game for his refusal to wear masks at Gonzaga University from their basketball game for his refusal to wear masks at And John and I have been talking for several years about these issues.
And he is a quiet, humble, very reserved man.
He is now fed up with what's happening in this country.
And he called me today and said he's at the point where he's willing now to start talking about it.
So thank you very, very much, John, for joining me on the podcast.
Tell us what happened at Gonzaga.
You are a fixture at those games.
You sit across from those students and you inspire them.
It's something that the university has used for years to publicize the game.
Your presence there is something that everybody Well, the role's pretty special, actually.
I mean, myself, my family, we've enjoyed Gonzaga games way back from the time I played there, but also, especially lately.
Once I retired, we came back home to Spokane.
I probably haven't missed a handful of games since we've been back, other than when my kids were playing either in high school or in college or doing something like that, something that took me away from it.
So it's a special place for me and my family to go watch my Zags.
I mean, these kids are special to me.
One of the members on the team right now, Anton Watson, I coached him in high school and grade school and great kid.
These other kids I've gotten to know over the years of playing with them in the summertime.
So yeah, I feel a special connection to the school, to the kids.
And you even mentioned it.
To those students across the way that are so rambunctious, it's a special moment to sit there and watch them get after people in these games.
So what happened?
talk about what happened after the pandemic and your posture with the mask.
Because you did something that is really unusual, which is you went in there without a mask and people were, the press was so indignant and furious.
And I think for the first time in your career, you got negative publicity and you have been quiet about it, but you just, you stoically and in there and took a stand that you believe in.
Yeah, I don't get the newspaper and things like that, so I'm not too aware of bad publicity, but the school itself, you know, representatives of the school called me in and said, hey, we need to do something here.
We can't have you not wearing a mask, and I know I'm not the only one.
I just, I'm very visible.
I get shown at the games quite often, and I guess I'm in a, I'm at the 50-yard line midcourt, so I attract a little bit of attention, I guess, but They can't have me being a figurehead of the school and not wearing a mask.
And I said, well, I can't wear a mask.
I link things together.
And I think the links with the mandates for vaccines that the school has now adopted, I just think that they're linked, that the health district or the state is dictating terms and dictating what we do with our own health and our own bodies.
And to me, I'm looking across at these students and that's just unacceptable.
When I know it's not what's best for those kids across there, and eventually my kids and their grandkids, etc., I can't do it.
And so we basically reached an impasse that I didn't feel like I could morally wear a mask to the games because it means so much.
It means so much more when it comes to the autonomy that we should have with our bodies that I couldn't do it.
Then they said, well, we're suspending your tickets until further notice.
And Yeah, it was pretty friendly.
It doesn't feel good.
I'm sad.
I missed the game last night.
You know, it's something I said our families enjoyed for a long time, but it's relatively small in the overall scheme of things.
Yeah, so talk about your own Well, that's a big question.
Yeah, there's a lot.
I mean, I've been tracking things for a long time, and usually what I do is if I have personal experiences, I try to learn about them.
I try to read up on them.
I try to get myself in touch with experts that can help me with it just to see where I'm at.
I don't go about it lightly, and I think vaccines, and particularly these ones with COVID, have been striking examples of of what's not right about our country and particularly my state right now that a governor can step in and mandate an experimental drug to anybody that wants to live in the state and live a normal life otherwise suffer the consequences and to me that doesn't seem right and then the health district It supports it.
The health district holds pressure over the schools, whether it be the university like Gonzaga or my high school that my kids attended or the grade school.
These young kids are wearing masks.
I mean, you just see the trickle down.
I've got a six-year-old grandson that wears a mask to school every day.
And the guy that invented it will tell you that.
We need these kids to come across these bugs, get their own immunity, and then help us get through it.
But it's not the way things are going.
And that's really distressing that we're giving up our freedoms To be true.
I do.
I do.
And I don't want to put words into their mouths.
It's interesting living, as you understand, the life of a wife or a son or daughter of a public figure.
You learn to live with certain things.
And we've been blessed with so many things.
And anything that's negative, it's far outweighed by the great things.
So there's nobody complaining here.
But my kids have to live through my choices when I speak.
They're supportive, as is my wife, Nina.
- I know that you've been quietly talking to other professional athletes.
Can you talk about that a little bit, about what the attitude you're finding around the different leagues? - Yeah, it's difficult.
I mean, I've been in this space for a long time.
I think I mentioned to you before in a conversation, I had a child that we believe was impacted by vaccines.
That's what started calling my attention to this.
It's probably close to 30 years ago and it caused me to start learning this thing.
So my evolution from being A guy that vaccinated my children on schedule to where I'm at today, where I question every one of them, has been a long one.
And so to introduce, I've been calling ex-teammates, friends, acquaintances that are ex-NBA players, NFL players, to try to have this conversation.
They're always lengthy conversations, and they're difficult.
Everybody, all of us, are setting our ways a little bit, and I wish it was immediately impactful, but I think we set the seed and we start seeing some of the things, some of the toxins, for example, that are in each and every vaccine that we're introducing into our children.
That's kind of where I'm drawing my line in the sand, is we're introducing toxins into our children with the illusion that it makes them safer.
And it takes me back to my dad and my old coach and said be careful what freedoms you're willing to sacrifice for safety.
And it just keeps resonating in my years and keeps putting me back to the grindstone to research a little bit more.
And some of these NBA players and also NFL players have been very, very high profile who have refused to take the vaccine.
Have you talked to any of them?
No, that's very difficult.
I take myself back to when I played.
I wasn't accepting a lot of phone calls from outside, whether they were good or for bad.
You don't know.
And you're concentrating, you're focusing on your job every night and you need to play well and you need to be there for your teammates, your coaches, your fans and be all in.
And so these guys that are stepping out In their limited windows, they're saying it and then they're going back to work.
And I fully appreciate that.
So, you know, although we're trying to reach them, I'm trying to reach them, it's been difficult.
But the ones we do reach, most guys have been all on board, but have things they need to protect.
You know, that pressure over all of us in every walk of life to try to be a good citizen, to not goof up things for your children so they can't get jobs or have a life.
That's in the back of everybody's mind.
So even when they're all on board, they're a little reticent because they know there are repercussions to speaking out.
And then there's others that are harder to convince, and those take a while.
Yeah, and you've been watching Aaron Rodgers.
You've watched Kyrie Irving and Djokovic recently.
And what's been your take on those from somebody who was at the center of sports greatness?
Well, these guys are making major stands.
I mean, Djokovic, he's, what is he, a nine-time winner of the Australian Open and he's not allowed there?
And who is he making unsafe?
I mean, I think by now, certainly everybody that's watching this or watching COVID in general has seen that we have people that are twice vaxxed and boosted still getting COVID. We have the same group still getting sick with COVID. We have all these doctors, MDs, speaking out that...
There's alternatives.
And yet these alternatives keep getting shot down.
That's difficult for me to watch for these guys.
When you see Aaron Rodgers in the middle of his season step out and speak so calmly and so assuredly about how he takes care of his body.
I mean, that's really all I'm asking.
I'm not asking anybody else to not do something.
What I'm saying is give us the right...
Way towards holistic type medicine versus, you know, the more medical version.
Okay, that's fine.
If somebody wants to go the other way, that's fine too.
But we should be allowed to pursue those things.
And when Aaron Rodgers mentioned it, he said, well, he can kind of pull it off.
He's on top of his game.
He's a star, but...
Everybody below the 50% rate, you know, these guys that are struggling, grinding, trying to get a job, trying to keep a job, they'll do anything it takes, as I would have way back when I was 23, 24 years old, to get to put that uniform on.
Such an honor and a privilege to get to play every day and just great experience to compete against the best.
And that's taken away by something other than your level of play, other than what you can provide for a team.
And to me, that just seems criminal.
Most of these guys, their whole life is based upon their understanding of what's happening with their body.
They are the experts on their own health.
And it just seems bizarre that Australia is trying to get Djokovic, who has had COVID.
He's already been exposed.
He has the antibodies and they're telling him, you know, that he's got to take this experimental medical intervention.
Yeah, I wish I could think of how many times I've thought to myself, well, this can't happen in the United States.
It can't happen in the world.
And that's a great example.
He's had the disease.
So they've admitted it's as immune as you can possibly get.
And they've also admitted that if you take the vaccine on top of that, you're putting yourself at a severe additional risk.
So why are we sacrificing what we know to be true about our health to let somebody who's going to make money on a shot that's injected in our system where our body has no ability to control its outcome?
It just seems crazy to me.
And yet here we are.
And what are things like in Washington State right now?
They're interesting.
I'm from Eastern Washington, and I think most people, frankly, think similarly to me.
I think we think that this is something we should just deal with naturally.
I think we should have freedom to wear a mask.
We should have freedom to run our businesses as we see fit, to go into restaurants or stores or basically live freely like we have for our entire lives, and yet we have a governor.
That comes out with one mandate after another, despite evidence that might suggest that we don't have an emergency anymore, and saying that now we have to be boosted plus 13 extra days to be considered vaccinated to reattain the privileges that most of us thought we were getting when we got the vaccines.
So, Washington is kind of following the line of New York and California and Oregon or leading it.
I mean, who knows who's leading it, but it's, you know, I believe the governor's kind of outstepped his powers and he's put a lot of people in bad financial situations, mental situations, all for the illusion of safety.
And for the people, is there a division in Washington?
Eastern and Western Washington.
Yeah, I'm not a real good expert on it.
I don't know how to divide it myself, but it sure seems that way in terms of voting and in terms of what people's feelings are.
Seattle and the west side of the state, they seem to be far more in tune with the vaccines and the mask mandates and those natures of things.
And it seems like on the east, we didn't have a lot to be afraid of.
And John, you represented our country Well, I now have grandchildren, and I'm watching my oldest grandson go to school every day in a mask.
We as a society are masking this child.
One of our ways of expressing ourselves and being able to learn how to communicate is with facial expressions, and that's being lost.
Could you imagine being a teacher and not seeing 30 smiling faces in your classroom every day, or frowny faces?
How would you do your job appropriately?
Furthermore, they're saying that, hey, we're not quite mandating it, but if you have a religious exemption, then maybe we'll let you off the hook.
So somebody in the health department gets to determine my religious fervor or the fervor of our children and grandchildren.
So what I'm scared of is that our kids and grandkids won't enjoy freedoms that their grandparents are great-grandparents.
I mean, I didn't fight in any wars.
I represented our country in a basketball game.
And I'm proud of it.
But there's people that have fought, given their lives for freedom so that we aren't intimidated, where we're not forced to wear masks, take dangerous medicines against our will, just to retain our jobs.
I mean, those freedoms are the key to what America is about.
And if we fail these children now, shame on us.
That's why I'm feeling like I need to spoke.
I cannot fail my grandchildren.
I cannot fail those kids across from me at those Gonzaga games.
I cannot fail the future.
And that's why it's important that we maintain freedoms above all.
If you could talk to the administration at Gonzaga, what would you tell them?
Well, probably the same thing we just discussed.
I'd say, look, clearly this isn't working.
Okay, so let's forget politics.
Let's forget what pressures are coming from the government, whatever.
Just look at it.
Is it working?
Is it what the best interests of these kids are?
That's really our job.
It isn't their job to be experimented on so that we can be safe.
It's our job to protect them and guide them.
So That's what I would encourage administration is, look, sometimes there's people that are losing their jobs by getting fired, by saying if you're not vaccinated, if you're not willing to do exactly what the government is telling you to do, you're going to lose your job.
So there's far more serious things out there than me losing my tickets.
That's what I'm trying to encourage these members, these people that are running schools, is you have a responsibility, those children.
Those young people to make it the best experience as possible.
And that doesn't always mean so that they can go to games.
It means so that they have safety.
They have their immune systems, their brain, their heart, their lungs, their bodies are safe to pursue any futures they hope to pursue.
And we have no right to force it upon them, period.
So that's what I try to get across, but I don't know how successful I am.
One of the things that most of Is there any society in history that has said, well, we need to put children at risk in order to make grown-ups safer.
Every other society in history has been a major, it's a foundational ethical presumption that the grown-ups and the adults make the sacrifices to lower the risk for children, not the other way around.
What does that say about what's happening to our society?
Yeah, people would even consider the opposite is very concerning and that a percentage, a decent percentage of people could consider the opposite.
I look at it as being a parent.
You and I are fortunate enough.
We've been parents, and you know what sacrifices you make for your kids, and you know what you would do to ensure their safety, and yet it's kind of being reversed.
Let me ask you one other thing, John.
On January 17, Sarah Atchow, who is one of the fastest runners in the world, she's a sprinter, a Swiss sprinter, because of the mandates for her sport, she reluctantly took a Pfizer vaccine on December 22nd.
Within four hours, And
nobody knows about this because the press simply won't cover it.
They will not acknowledge that this is happening as or as follows.
Nobody is really making an informed choice.
Nobody knows that they're accepting the propaganda.
Children, the athletes are getting this.
This cannot hurt you.
It's completely safe.
It's completely effective.
And the press is going along with this and acting as stenographers for the medical cartel.
What do you think about that?
We're at, what, 20,000 that they admit to?
This is the CDC who is embarking up the same tree that you and I are.
They're admitting to 20,000 deaths due to the vaccine.
That's them admitting to that.
That's 20,000 reported to VAERS, which is their system, their only surveillance system, which, like, the Vaccine Act told them, you've got to create a system that works.
According to their own studies, fewer than 1% of injuries historically have been reported, but they have, as you say, close to 20,000 deaths, they have a million injuries, and it's more deaths And they need to know this.
I mean, that's really why I don't wear a mask to the God's sake of games, to take it back to the simplest little thing, is people need to know these things.
They need to make an informed choice.
Right now, they're just following the letter of law.
I mean, the state of Washington, they spent $100 million advertising for these drugs for the drug companies.
They're doing the advertising for them.
It just doesn't make any sense.
And people need to understand that there are real risks to it.
It isn't safe.
It isn't effective.
And like I said, I do the research, plus I have personal experience.
I watched my dads take the simple flu shot and go into sepsis three years in a row.
So it's something people need to understand if they're going to decide to move forward with their own decision to take the shot or Well, I sure appreciate the opportunity to do it.
It's difficult to be able to speak out and have the opportunity to do it, and you're providing it for me as well, and I can't say enough about what you're doing out there every day.
I'm an admirer, so thank you.
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