John Stockton, Gonzaga alum, was a great basketball player. Medical expert? Not so much

Gonzaga University was right to suspend the season tickets of John Stockton, a beloved alum whose number 12 is retired at the private Catholic university and a Hall of Famer who played for the Utah Jazz.

Stockton confirmed to the Spokesman-Review that the university suspended his basketball season tickets after Stockton refused to comply with the university’s mask mandate.

“Basically, it came down to, they were asking me to wear a mask to the games and being a public figure, someone a little bit more visible, I stuck out in the crowd a little bit,” Stockton told the Spokesman-Review. “And therefore they received complaints and felt like from whatever the higher-ups — those weren’t discussed, but from whatever it was higher up — they were going to have to either ask me to wear a mask or they were going to suspend my tickets.”

Gonzaga is a private university, and its decisions on what to require on private property are up to the university. No shirt, no shoes, no service. No mask, no basketball.

Gonzaga has good reason to require masks indoors. They have proved to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, and Gonzaga is right to seek to slow the spread of the virus.

Requiring masks and slowing the spread of COVID-19 allows us to get back to some semblance of normalcy, like going to basketball games.

By not taking safety precautions, we revert back to isolating and canceling mass gatherings.

We all want to attend concerts, sporting events and other large gatherings. But we must do so safely.

Idaho on Monday reverted to crisis standards of care in three health districts — Southwest, South Central and Central — due to severe staff shortages, as COVID-19 cases surge.

Stockton does himself no favors by basing his opinions about the seriousness of the coronavirus, the efficacy of masks and the benefits of the vaccine on questionable information.

In the interview with the Spokane newspaper, Stockton claimed without evidence that more than 100 professional athletes have died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I think it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 I believe now, it’s over 100 professional athletes dead — professional athletes — the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court,” Stockton told the Spokesman-Review.

This claim is without any factual basis.

Another basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, called out Stockton in a CNN interview.

“I think statements like that make the public look upon athletes basically as dumb jocks, for trying to explain away something that is obviously a pandemic,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who said vaccines and testing are the best way to end the pandemic.

We can debate who the better player was, but when it comes to recognizing the seriousness of the pandemic and what is the right thing to do, I’ll go with Abdul-Jabbar.

Stockton can watch the games from the comfort of his living room, where he can’t infect others.