"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."

When Stockton gathered a small group of somewhat unsuspecting reporters in the Jazz's locker room at the Delta Center for an informal end-of-the-season question-and-answer session, the bomb fell.

Malone — long over it now — was miffed the media had been officially told first, because even he wasn't sure what Stockton was planning.

"He's not the only one," Stockton said. "And yet, looking back, I don't know that I personally could have done it another way. So, I stand by the way, and how, I felt I had to do it, and how it happened. But I don't expect everybody to agree with me."

Retirement, in Stockton's mind, was a process.

It took time.

Time he has so much of, yet so little of, now.

In Spokane, Stockton's life is a blur.

With kids ranging from a toddler to those soon ready for college, how can it not be?

"There isn't anything typical," he said. "All I know is that when school ends, that's when the treadmill starts. I mean, swrhwwww. It's humming until bedtime — and I enjoy that part. I look forward to it."

That's why Stockton now follows the NBA only from a distance, catching little more than an occasional newspaper report or television highlight segment about the Jazz.

Even while 18-season-long teammate Malone was toiling last season for the Los Angeles Lakers, Stockton stayed away from the tube.

"I didn't see a lick," he said. "It wasn't an attempt to distance . . . or anything weird. I just couldn't do it.

"I only saw Karl take one shot in the whole season, and that was because at a restaurant we were at having dinner the Laker game was on. The kids pointed it out. I hadn't even noticed it. They said, 'Hey, Karl's playing.' So I looked back and up, and there he was shooting a shot."

Last season, his first out of the league, Stockton made it back to Utah for exactly one Jazz game. There was time for no more.

Again, that was part of no intentional plan. Rather, it was merely a nod to the reality of what his routine — or lack thereof — has become.

"It's busy," Stockton said. "Even people — and I hate to put it all on my kids, or make it sound like I'm whining, because I'm not — but I don't think people understand just 'the time.'