Stockton work no slam-dunk

It was just the kind of scene that John Stockton used to loathe. During a visit to Salt Lake City last November, two photographers followed him around a gym — one with a video camera, one with a still camera — taking his picture for a couple of hours under the direction of sculptor Brian Challis and an assistant.

They took photos from every possible angle, moving slowly around his head. There was one photo looking up at the underside of his chin and nostrils and another looking down on the top of his head — all deemed necessary because, as a sculptor, Challis works in 3-D.

"He was really good," says Challis. "I expected him to be anxious, to want to get this over with. He was funny. He joked quite a bit. He was very relaxed. He said take whatever time you need."

Eight months later, the statue of the Jazz's great point guard — the original clay model of the one that will eventually stand outside the Delta Center in bronze — is taking shape with a certain degree of secrecy. The Stockton statue is posed as fans remember him, passing the ball. What else?

In a tiny studio in an upstairs room of a large house in Sandy, the statue has almost come to life under the hands of Challis, a man who used to make stairways for a living and was a neighbor to Jazz owner Larry Miller.

For six months Challis has labored over every detail of the work right down to the way Stockton's left hand flexed into a Vulcan sign whenever he released a pass. Sometime next winter — maybe February or March — the statue will be unveiled for the public. It will stand on the southeast corner of the Delta Center (there are too many trees to place it on the northeast plaza), some 13 feet tall from the ground to the top of his head, counting the 5-foot base on which it will stand.

Eventually, an 18-foot statue of Karl Malone will be placed alongside it, but only after he has retired from play. Challis already has roughed out most of the Malone figure (going up for a hammer dunk).

"We'd like him to be retired first," says Challis. "Larry wants each of them to have his moment in the sun."

Opportunity of a lifetime

Challis went to painstaking efforts for accuracy and detail on the Stockton statue, which is why he met Stockton in the gym and ordered hundreds of photos to be taken. He tried to set up a similar meeting with Malone, but his request was ignored.

Once he got Stockton in the gym, he asked him to pose, "but he didn't do a good job of posing. It didn't look natural. He's not used to holding a position." So he had him move and play and even asked Stockton to direct his passes to him.

"Are you sure you want that?" Stockton asked, knowing his passes were not the gentler playground variety.