Gary Payton wasn't scared of Michael Jordan, but he did fear John Stockton.
Well, that's not entirely true. "The Glove" wasn't afraid of anyone—which was part of his rough-around-the-edges charm. But it seems he came close to fearing Stockton and even told Yahoo! Sports' Marc J. Spears that handling Jordan was "a little easier."
Preparing for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Payton was asked by Spears why he selected Stockton as one of his presenters at the ceremony, at which point he gushed about the 10-time All-Star point guard:
John Stockton is because I liked him when I was playing basketball. Everyone said he was dirty. He wasn't as athletic as us. But he was smarter than us. We knew what he was going to do. We knew he was going to set [tough] picks. We had all the videos on Utah. We were so dumb. We would get caught up with the picks and get mad at him. He would shoot eight times and make nine. Shoot eight free throws and make seven. He'd have 15 assists and four steals. A complete game. That's just the way he was and I idolized him. I just imitated him while going about m ...
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Article written by Dan Favale
Gary Payton Says John Stockton Was Tougher to Guard Than Michael Jordan
September 3rd, 2013 by Dan Favale Leave a reply »
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