Gary Payton is a part of that short list of players who can rightfully claim to be one of the greatest point guards to have ever played in the NBA. Payton, who spent much of his career with the Seattle Supersonics, was a 9-time All-Star who also became the first point guard to ever win Defensive Player of the Year back in 1996.
He was also selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team 9 times in a row, which is a record, and only three other players have made it 9 times in their careers. Those would happen to be Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett, which is quite an impressive company to be with. All three of them played against Payton at various points, and Garnett once recounted how amazed he was seeing Payton control everyone when he was on the court.
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“I saw Gary Payton control the referees, his coach, my coach, the crowd, the lady in the front. The guy who was on the side of the Minnesota games sitting in public. He was controlling the whole game.”
“I watched GP back down the guard from baseline to baseline, talking the whole time. ‘Shut yo a** up!’, ‘4 up twitch!’, ‘Ay get his a** in here!’, ‘Ay come up’, ‘Ay, you see the hand on the hip, call it if you see it.’ How is GP managing all this? He talking to me, he calling the play and still scoring the ball, stealing the ball, effective, he in the huddle, he got the thing, he drawing the play. GP to me was like masterful.”
As Garnett says, it was incredible that Payton was doing all this at the same time, and only a few players could have accomplished this. Payton, unfortunately, wasn’t able to win a championship for the Supersonics, but he would finally end up getting his hands on that elusive title in 2006 with the Miami Heat.
Gary Payton Often Crossed The Boundaries Of Trash Talking
Payton is also considered one of the greatest trash talkers of all time, and he wasn’t someone who shied away from crossing the boundaries when it came to it. He would make it quite personal by bringing up his opponent’s mother or sister, stating that while it might be cruel for some, he would still do it.
He also once revealed his All-90s trash-talking team, which included Jordan and Larry Bird. Payton had some high praise for Bird’s trash-talking skills, in particular, as he said the Celtics icon would tell him what he was going to do on the court and then do it.
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