The fascinating story behind the coolest name in basketball

Meet Stockton Malone Shorts.

The Utah high schooler can seriously play ball -- although he prefers trunks a bit longer than those once sported by the pair of NBA legends who are his namesake.

Back in a time called the 1990s, point guard John Stockton and power forward Karl Malone comprised one of the NBA's most fearsome duos for the Utah Jazz. Stockton in particular favored the old-school short-shorts look.

Now, almost 20 years later, there's a kid named Stockton Malone Shorts tearing up Utah's high school hoops scene. Just the other night, he scored 17 points to help his Copper Hills squad advance in the state tournament. ESPN lists him as a 6-foot-3 guard who's the state's ninth-best recruit.

More importantly, though, now that the internet has taken notice: Dude, what is up with that epic name??

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The story, naturally enough, starts with his parents, Rylan and Kelly Shorts. You see, when two people love each other very, very much ... no, wait, let's start over.

Back in 1996, according to a Salt Lake Tribune story from two years ago, Rylan and Kelly attended an exhibition game against China as part of the U.S. Olympic Team's pre-Games warmup tour. Among the members of that '96 squad were -- you guessed it -- Stockton and Malone. Jerry Sloan, legendary head coach of the Utah Jazz, served as one of the Olympic team assistants.

Before that game, according to the Tribune, Rylan and Kelly were walking along sporting Team USA jerseys when a van stopped nearby. Stockton, Malone and Sloan then exited the vehicle to briefly shoot the breeze with the Shorts and sign some autographs.

The encounter, Kelly Shorts told the paper, "left us kind of speechless." Rylan was already a huge Jazz fan, but Kelly says she was "sold" on the squad after the cordial, unexpected meet-up with the team's biggest stars.

More than two years later, the couple's first son was born and given his very unique name.

As you can see from the photo embedded in this article, our high school hooper favors shorts much longer than the Daisy Dukes once worn by the NBA point guard who inspired his first name.

But Stockton (Malone Shorts) does wear (John) Stockton's number 12.

That's some classic (John) Stockton (Malone Shorts).