For 19 years, he performed on the most public of stages. More than 1,500 times, thousands watched him work. For nearly two decades, John Stockton played, and starred, in the NBA.

All the while, his biggest battle may not have been wins and losses. Instead, the fight to maintain his privacy was the one that really boiled Stockton's blood.

Because beyond the 3,265 steals, beyond the 15,806 assists, beyond the longevity of the game's purest of points, there is a person.

A shy man. Introspective. Perhaps even an introvert, some might suggest.

Now, more than 18 months after he shocked even some of those closest to him with an announcement of retirement, the point guard who spent his entire professional career with the Utah Jazz lets his guard down.

Just a bit.

Tonight, during a ceremony at halftime at the Jazz's game against the New Orleans Hornets, his No. 12 jersey will be hoisted in retirement to the rafters of the Delta Center, joining those assigned to former coach and general manager Frank Layden; the late, great showman Pistol Pete Maravich; scoring sensation Darrell Griffith; 7-foot-4 center Mark Eaton; and one of Stockton's closest friends from when the two were teammates, sharpshooter Jeff Hornacek.

Tonight, the 19-season career of the NBA's all-time leader in both assists and steals will be celebrated.

Last month — in the serenity of his hometown of Spokane, Wash., to which he and his wife, Nada, and their family of six children relocated very shortly after his playing days came to a close — Stockton spoke.

He did so not in snippets, not with that deer-in-the-headlights look he so often had when being interviewed, but instead in the most revealing of manners. He spoke freely, the burden of day-to-day scrutiny apparently having eased his intensity. He told, as only John Stockton could, the tale of how and why one of the game's greats decided to walk away.

And just how hard it was.

"That was a bad three days," Stockton said. "It just was ugly."

Even when he walked off the floor of Arco Arena in Sacramento for the final time on April 30,2003, Stockton did not know.

The Jazz had been eliminated from the first round of the NBA playoffs for the third time in three years, a far cry from the NBA Finals appearances — and subsequent back-to-back losses to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls — of 1997 and '98.

The Kings' crowd had offered a stirring goodbye ovation.

Yet even at the age of 41, the Gonzaga University product who performed with such certainty throughout his pro career just could not be sure.

"I didn't know it until I said it," he said. "That was very hard. In fact, I don't know anybody (knew). I discussed it with my wife, my kids, my parents, (longtime teammate and good friend) Karl (Malone). And, in my mind, I guess it was a process of working toward that. But, in theirs, I certainly didn't tell them."