On the road, he would often go out of his way to avoid crowds of autograph-seekers — sometimes even exiting hotels from a back entrance and walking the long way around the team bus so he could board without being seen.

Other times, he did what he felt was right.

Every day away from home, though, seemed to be a battle in the war with privacy maintenance.

"Jerry (Sloan) was great about letting me, or us, be basketball players," Stockton said. "It wasn't a prerequisite to be a celebrity, or a hero, or . . . a 'target.' "

Even today, Stockton can hear Sloan: "Just go play," the coach would say. "That's all I'm asking: Just go play, and be a good person."

That freedom loomed large on the list of reasons Stockton liked so much to play in Salt Lake — and probably would not have lasted nearly as long as he did if he had been traded to virtually any other NBA locale.

New Orleans or Orlando? No go. Boston or Philadelphia? Wouldn't work. New York? Forget about it.

"The beauty of Salt Lake, for the most part — and there are exceptions — is that people did mostly respect your space," Stockton said. "One of the beauties of playing there is that you could walk down the street, and even if people recognize you . . . for the most part, they give you your space."

The last question Stockton was asked as an NBA player was a simple one.

What will you miss most?

Stockton said he did not know, then turned and walked away, declining to elaborate, so as not to break down, not to cry, in public.

Now, he can answer the query without any tears.

"You miss your friends, and the environment that you're put in where you can be friends," Stockton said. "You know — the dinners on the road, when you go sit around with Karl (Malone) and Horny (Hornacek) and Adam (Keefe), and . . . you're talking about everything under the sun. You come back and you see the coaches in the lobby (and) shoot the breeze with them for a few minutes. Those types of things."

Over 19 years, road life became second nature for Stockton. The Jazz would take a trip, and he would leave the family behind. It's just the way it was.

Spokane was and is his real home, but it, too, was on the back burner.

Utah became a home away from home, a place where he could take his kids to work more and more often as the eldest got older and savor watching them grow as he did.

If one wasn't hiding in the box beneath Stockton's locker seat, another might have been out on the court knocking down long-distance jumpers.