Speaking on VLAD TV, 9x NBA All-Star Gary Payton gave some huge props to former Utah Jazz point guard, John Stockton.
In the interview, he credited Stockton as one of the hardest players he has ever had to guard, apparently even harder than the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan.
Here he is explaining his position:
“I gotta guard him from 94 feet. I got to think about coming off of picks, he throwing passes, he coming back trying to stela basketballs, he always moving, he’s taking charges on me, he’s doing a lot of things. I have to always focus on him. He only played 34 minutes, that’s what Jerry Sloan played him. And then when you look up he shot the ball 10 times. He made eight. He shot seven free throws, he made all seven. Next thing you know, he got 16 assists. Then you think about it and you go ‘dang he got five, six rebounds and he got five steals. And I look up there and say ‘he got 27, 16, 5, 5. I can’t deal with that!’ And we get beat by 20. So he was very hard for me to guard and I used to hate going into Utah all the time.”
Over 19 years in the NBA, Stockton built an amazing resume. By the time he retired in 2003, he was a 19x All-Star, 11x All-NBA player, 5x All-Defensive player, and one of the greatest to ever don a Utah Jazz jersey.
While he never got the same level of clout as Jordan, his game was arguably more well-rounded. The way he set up his teammates and created plays on the floor was unlike anybody else during that time and guys like Payton clearly had trouble stopping it.
Today, fans recognize the impact he had on the floor and the status he held as one of the best in the world during an era that was ruled by Michael Jordan.
In November of 2004, Stockton’s jersey was retired and hung by the Jazz organization, forever cementing his place in basketball history.
