White Chocolate's Wild Take: RJ Barrett Over Prime Stockton

Jason Williams has been out of the league for over a decade, but the guy still knows how to get a room talking. "White Chocolate" pulled up on the Hoopin' Hollerin' podcast this week and dropped a take so unhinged it needed its own headline: he'd rather have RJ Barrett as an 11th grader than John Stockton in his prime. Not RJ Barrett the borderline All-Star. RJ Barrett the high school junior.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

Jason Williams would take 11th grade RJ Barrett over prime John Stockton and he thinks high schoolers should be allowed to play in the NBA

For context on how absurd this sounds on paper: Stockton is the NBA's all-time leader in assists and steals, a 10-time All-Star who ran Utah's pick-and-roll offense for nearly two decades with a turnover rate most guards would trade a limb for. RJ Barrett at 16 or 17 was a can't-miss Canadian prospect, sure, but he was still years from an NBA jersey. Williams isn't just comparing talent levels here, he's making a philosophical point: the kid's ceiling and pure gifts matter more to him than a finished, efficient product.

That's because the take doubles as an argument Williams has clearly thought about: he thinks high schoolers should have a straight path back into the NBA. The league killed the prep-to-pros pipeline in 2005, forcing everyone to wait a year (or fake a year of college) before getting drafted. Guys like Williams, who grew up idolizing playground legends and watched the AAU-to-NBA highway get gated off, tend to hate that rule on principle. His Barrett take is really a referendum on letting elite teenagers get paid and developed by NBA franchises instead of the NCAA.

The reason this clip is spreading isn't just the take itself, it's who's saying it. Williams built his entire NBA identity on flash over fundamentals, no-look dimes and behind-the-back dribbles that got him nicknamed after a candy bar. Naturally, a guy whose whole game was upside and highlight-reel flair is going to gravitate toward Barrett's raw ceiling over Stockton's metronomic efficiency. It's a very on-brand opinion from the guy who once made bounce passes off backboards look normal.

This particular podcast appearance came right after Williams was seen putting in work with fans in person, trading pointers and compliments in a gym session that made the rounds separately.

Unbiased Ev

@DoubleVodkaDon

“A little Steph Curry, a little Shaq mixed in there” - NBA Legend/Champion Jason Williams aka White Chocolate describing my NBA player comp

RJ Barrett himself is in an interesting spot to be the center of a hypothetical like this. He's currently with the Raptors after the 2023 blockbuster that sent him and Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for OG Anunoby, and he's coming off a career-efficient season, averaging around 19.3 points a game while shooting a career-best clip from the field. He's also reportedly drawing trade interest again as Toronto weighs its options ahead of the 2026 draft and free agency, so his name being in the news cycle for any reason, even a wild 11th-grade comp, tracks with the moment.

Whether or not you buy Williams' logic, the clip is doing exactly what a good Hoopin' Hollerin' segment is supposed to do: get people arguing. Prime Stockton over a teenager is the layup take. Williams betting on upside, flash, and a broken pipeline he never got to use himself is the one that gets clipped and argued about for a week.