You keep bringing up stats... did you ever actually WATCH Payton play?
Plenty of times.
A demon at man to man D and carried himself with a cocky, overconfident swagger.
Beyond that, the rest of his game never stood out to me.
He had that rugged back to the basket game and a ugly, knuckle ball J.
It's only certain players at the PG position that you can say "disregard the stats" for.
Mostly it's the pure pg's you say that about.I've seen J Kidd dominate games without having to score a bucket.Using his D, court vision, rebounding, and overall hustle ability.
Magic is another one.
Payton was more like Russel Westbrook in terms of PG style, but not as fast or quick.Later in his career, he became a better passer, but he was never one to dominate a game with his passing abilities.
In fact, Russel right now is a better player than Payton ever was.He's balling and his team is contending for a ship.
Payton's best years came when Seattle was struggling to make the 8th seed
The proof is in the pudding with him and Kemp.They were both good players, but not great.I think people overrate them because of the dunk highlights and the swag.As somebody already said, them dudes got knocked out by a 8th seed when they were a #1.They're not built for greatness.
People underrate Detlef Schrempf & Nate Mcmillan on that '96 Sonics team.It wasn't just Payton holding MJ to under 30.
That Seattle team had some of the best team defense I've ever seen.What they did to Hakeem and the Rockets in the playoffs that year was
.They were good in the regular season that year.#2 in points allowed, but they were suffering through some injuries.McMillan was banged up, but got healthy right as the playoffs started.When he came back, the D started peaking at the right time.It was beautiful.In fact, that team made me appreciate defense.They put the total fukking clamps on the Rockets.
In fact, The only team I think could top them is the '04 Pistons...in terms of team defense.
The '08 celtics were pretty good, to
