SH Blog: Payton says Stockton was harder to guard than Jordan, Mike Malone wants Cousins to be a passer

On September 8, 2013, former star Gary Payton will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The man they once called “The Glove” – a nickname given to him for the ability to shut his opponents down on the defensive end – sat with Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports to discuss how his speech will go down and the hopes of avoiding tears when all said and done. Along the way, Payton explained why he chose John Stockton as one of his presenters for the prestigious award:

Q: Did John Stockton ever talk trash back to you?

A: “Never. That is the reason I really respected him because you never could get in his head. He’s the hardest person I ever had to guard. I tried to talk to him, try to do something and he’d just look at me, set a pick and cause me [to get mad and] get a tech. And then all of the sudden it was over. There was much respect to him doing that to me. It taught me a lot.”

Q: Even so, you once said you were better than Stockton?

A: “I was. I really think I was better as an athlete and in everything all-around. But he was just a smarter basketball player than us. He just got it done. I do think I was a better basketball player. I can do more things skills-wise. He just showed he knew how to play the game and that was the biggest difference.”

Q: You say Stockton was the hardest to guard, but what about guarding Michael Jordan?

A: “Those battles were a little easier. I would have Jordan get mad at me and go back at me. He knew he was really talented and could do whatever he wanted to. But [Stockton] was more of a challenge to me than guarding someone that would talk back to me. When you talk back to me and say something to me it made my game go to another level. John was one who wouldn’t say nothing and you couldn’t figure him out.

The conversation is very interesting because Payton, in essence, believed it was more of a challenge to guard Stockton than Jordan, and that’s saying a lot given that Jordan is regarded by most as the greatest player of all time. For Payton in particular, though, it probably makes a little more sense to make such a statement, partly because of his rivalry and history with Jordan. The two are known as some of the finest trash talkers ever and did plenty of it against each other. Payton was smaller, but was strong enough to hold his ground and was one of the few that had the ability to frustrate Jordan. When they met in the NBA Finals back in 1996, Payton often guarded and contained Jordan, and even held him to 23 points in one particular game – his lowest scoring output ever in a Finals game.

Stockton, on the other hand, was as collected as they come and executed like no other point guard in the history of the game. He shot 51.5% over his entire career – stunning for a player of his size – and looked to involve every single one of his teammates on just about every possession, which made him a much more unpredictable player to guard than a deadly scorer.

Who would you rather guard? A scoring wizard or a mastermind with eyes in the back of his head? If nothing else, it makes for a very interesting debate.

Onto other news from around the league:

• Mike Malone once hoped to be a secret agent, from Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: “I always wanted to coach, but after I graduated (from Loyola in Maryland), I couldn’t get a coaching job. I was a volunteer assistant, living at home, working at Foot Locker, cleaning office buildings at 1 o’clock in the morning. I was thinking, “What am I doing? This isn’t part of the plan.” I figured I’d become a state trooper with hopes of becoming a secret agent. But it’s like Yogi Berra says, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” I was just days from going to the academy to become a state trooper in Michigan, pulling people over, maybe getting shot, and all of a sudden, I get a call from Providence coach Pete Gillen. The next thing you know, I’m coaching in the Big East.”
  
  Pages: 1 2