Statue of John Stockton
The statue of John Stockton is located outside the southeastern corner of the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The bronze statue portrays former Utah Jazz basketball player John Stockton making a one-handed pass while running. Design began in November 2003, and the statue was unveiled to the public during the afternoon of Wednesday, March 30, 2005.
Design
The design of the public sculpture is a realistic depiction of Stockton in dynamic motion. The project supervised by Sandy, Utah sculptor Brian Challis began in November 2003 when he and two photographers met up with Stockton at a Salt Lake City gym. The original plan was to have Stockton make various poses, but after attempting this, it proved untenable because it was impossible to get a natural look. Hence, Challis instructed Stockton to move around and play basketball naturally, which included throwing passes to Challis; meanwhile, the two photographers captured as many different angles and motions as possible.Thereafter, Challis browsed through thousands of photos of Stockton, and made a collection of about 100. Then, Challis narrowed his selection down to ten photos, which he attached to a large poster that he taped to his art studio window. Challis went to work on the original clay model that started taking shape by June 2004. To aid this process, Challis studied intricate details such as human anatomy, the way basketball uniforms wrinkle, and the movement, shape, and form of Stockton's shoes while playing. While sculpting, Challis re-positioned the statue about 20 total times, mostly on the legs and neck; he accomplished this by inserting a wrench into temporary holes to adjust the ball-and-socket joints on the steel rods that served as the statue's infrastructure.