Only three point guards impress Gary Payton and Rajon Rondo is one
Oregon State's all-time leader in points, assists and steals, was honored Saturday night by his alma mater before the Beavers took on Cal in a game they would lose to the Golden Bears 88-83.
Payton spent seventeen years in the NBA and is a Hall of Famer who made his first finals appearance with the Seattle Supersonics in 1996 losing to Michael Jordan's Bulls and later winning and NBA title in 2006 as a member of the Miami Heat.
"GP" or "The Glove" as he was often referred to because of his defensive prowess is the only point guard ever to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award and is widely considered one of the greatest all around players to play the position
Payton was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times, an NBA record he shares with Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant.
Here's what, according to Steph Rogers at The Score, Payton had to say about today's NBA:
"Basically everything. It's no defense, it's just run and gun. To me, there's only three point guards in the NBA that impress me; I got Chris Paul, Rondo, and another kid that I like a lot and I forgot his name right now. Oh, and Tony Parker. That's only three NBA players in there.
There's too much touch fouls. Every time you touch and they stay on the free throw line. That's no way to watch basketball. When we were playing, it was rough and tough. Even superstars like me fouled out a lot. That's because they let people play, and if you do something then you call it. But nowadays it's not like that and this is the era.
This is what kids want to see. You see these Playstations, they scoring 50 and 60 with one player, that's what they want to see on TV and I don't go with that. My era, give me one-on-one with somebody and stop him and right now you can't do that with a player because if you touch him he's going to the foul line and you're fouling out. Let him be rough. If he got an opportunity to go at you in the offensive end, let me go at him on the defensive end and rough him up. So that's the way I like basketball and I don't think it's like that.
Although I do enjoy the current NBA I do agree with Payton on a lot of these points. Especially how it used to be a much more physical league but all the rule changes have put the scorers at a distinct advantage.
His point about Rajon Rondo is well taken as well and is one of the reasons I love Rondo and absolutely do not want to see the Celtics trade him.
He's one of the few pure distributing point guards left in the league.
From a couple of months ago Payton also had this to say:
“We don’t really have point guards in the NBA now. We really have (shooting) guards – and that’s a fact,” Payton said. “I think there’s only three true point guards that play like point guards. I think Chris Paul is one, I think (Rajon) Rondo is one, and I think Tony Parker is the other.”
Payton's rationale is also one of the big reasons I loved The Truth and Big Ticket led Celtics. They played great fundamental defensive team basketball.
The current champion Miami Heat are more just a collection of great talent as opposed to a team.
Which is also what make Payton's statements somewhat ironic considering he won his ring with a team whose feature player, Dwyane Wade, is now part of the team that many people consider to be the embodiment of what's wrong with the NBA.
In the meantime, Rondo should be honored that The Glove recognizes his ability and Celtic fans should be excited to see him back out on the floor.
After all, Payton was never one to give out compliments during his playing days and seems even less apt to now.
Follow Clint on Twitter @clintcorey
