Stockton work no slam-dunk

"He used to pop out of his shoe, just blow it out," Miller noted. "His shoes lasted only a couple of games, and then he had to get a new pair."

In many cases, to get the right detail, Challis made his own tools in his basement shop — one to sculpt Stockton's hair — "The tools I had made the hair too smooth; I wanted a more sculpted look" — and another tool to make grooves in the ball and still another tool to make the shoe laces the right shape.

It took him a week just to make the ball. Using another homemade tool, he pressed 11,200 dimples in the ball. To make the ball, he used a mini ball, but because the logo and the brand name were not in the same place as an NBA ball, he sliced the balls into halves and glued them together with sections from other balls, then coated the ball with wax to give it a sculpted look.

"A regular ball would be too refined," he says. "I wanted it to look sculpted, like the rest of the statue. It would have looked out of place."

Work to be done

When the project is complete, two sizes of the statue will be offered for sale to the public, plus the statue that will go on display at the Delta Center. He also plans to place bronzed casts of Stockton's large hands so fans can place their own hand inside it, and there will be bronzed autographs on the plaza as well.

"We want to give people the opportunity to participate," says Challis.

Challis, who describes himself as a longtime fan "but not an avid fan — I don't own season tickets," has never met Malone. Even though he has completed much of Malone's statue, he would still like to meet with him. Miller says Malone knows the project is under way.

"There are still things he could help me with," says Challis. "I'd like to measure the girth of his leg when he lifts it up. And his chest. I hope when the season is over we can get together. I don't need to, but I'd like to. You always get a better piece of sculpture that way."

Though he is precise with proportions and accuracy, he also relies on his eye and instinct. The statues are supported by steel rods with custom-made ball-and-sockets in the joints that allow Challis to insert a wrench through a temporary hole to make adjustments to the positioning of the body. The clay cracks, which means reworking it after each move, but eventually he finds the right position.

Says Challis, "I've probably re-positioned John maybe 20 times — the position of the legs, for instance. And I've loosened the neck several times and moved it. It's just getting a feel for it, eyeballing it."

Sizing up the work, Miller was satisfied with the body — "From the neck down, it's great," he said — but he hoped Challis would achieve a better likeness in the face.

Challis still has a lot of work to do. He still must complete the statues, then reproduce smaller and much larger versions of both works in bronze. But next winter he is planning to unveil his work on the Delta Center Plaza, where the legend of Malone and Stockton will be bronzed forever.

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com