20 years ago: Jazz give new deals to John Stockton, Karl Malone

While admitting the escalation of salaries "boggles my mind," Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller staged a news conference to announce new multiyear agreements with star players Karl Malone and John Stockton.

Although exact terms of the contracts were not disclosed, Malone's contract is an eight-year deal worth an estimated $24 million, while Stockton's is a six-year contract believed to be worth as much as $14 million.

"This contract is far beyond my wildest dreams," Stockton said. "If you go back to when I first started playing, I could have never imagined that it would come to this. I know that I am fortunate to be playing in the league at this time."

Stockton plans to spend the rest of his career with Utah.

"That's the way I felt from the get-go — that I wanted to spend my career there," he said. "The new contract was a boost but not the reason I always wanted to play in Utah. They're great coaches, I love my teammates and, when you have an owner like Larry, why would you want to play anywhere else?"

Malone now ranks second or third among power forwards in the league, making $3 million per season.

"My dream when I was drafted was that any team that I was drafted by, that was the team I would finish with," Malone said.