Naming a child is never easy.
Regardless of how many names parents have picked out ahead of time, they can all go out the door once they see their newborn child for the first time.
Obviously when some people get older, they decide to change their name or they prefer a nickname, but for the most part, your name is your legacy, and you try and live up to the reasoning and significance behind your name each and every day.
For this high school basketball player from Utah, that's something much easier said than done.
Stockton Malone Shorts not only has one of the best names in sports, but he's one of the best, if not the best, high school basketball players in Utah as he's averaging 24.2 points per game and has led his team to Utah's 5A boy's basketball quarterfinals.
You're probably not interested in that, though. No, you're probably more interested with the name and how it came about.
Rather than having us explain the story behind it, allow Stockton's parents to explain, via the Salt Lake Tribune in 2015:
Label him a child of the Dream Team, because an exhibition contest during the U.S. Olympic basketball team’s preparation for the 1996 Games became his christening moment — more than two years before his birth to Rylan and Kelly Shorts.
Stockton’s parents attended that game vs. China in Phoenix, where they lived, wearing USA jerseys. They were walking down the street when a van stopped and the driver beckoned them. As they approached the vehicle, out stepped John Stockton, Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan, who chatted with them and signed autographs.
That explains how their first-born son would have immortalized names. The episode “kind of left us speechless,” said Kelly Shorts, who understood her future husband’s loyalty to the Jazz. “That kind of sold me.”
As far as perfect names go, Stockton Malone Shorts is at the top of the mountain.
Considering we started the year with "Kobe Buffalomeat" stealing the spotlight with his incredible name, it was hard to imagine any name being better, but now we're just waiting on the next great one.
Until then, enjoy some Malone and Stockton (shorts) highlights.
(H/T: FTW and Sports Illustrated)
