Gary Payton Gets Brutally Honest About Today’s NBA

Gary Payton is one of the greatest point guards of all time.

Because of that, when he talks about the league as a whole, his opinion carries a lot of sway.

This week Payton offered his thoughts on present-day NBA and how basketball is played within it.

“Soft. These kids are in a different generation. When we played, it was inside outside. You give it to the big man, you get it out there, and then if you had a great player, he could create whatever he wants to.

“Nowadays, their weapon is a three-point. They’re running to the basketball, and then this crazy mess where you gotta go to a monitor and see if you got hit in the head or nothing,” he continued.

 

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“In our era, if you went to the basket, we wouldn’t let nobody dunk and we gonna put you in the third row. And then you just come on back. Nowadays, you get hit and you do this. They be like, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let’s check it. Let’s see what happens.

“And then you put an ice pack on your head and all that stuff and you’re looking crazy like you done got shot or something. Then they get the ball back and then they laughing at you because they fooled you, you know what I’m saying? So it’s crazy. You won’t see physical basketball again,” Payton added.

“That’s over. I just think it comes from an era in the league changing. The league wants to see more entertaining. And then you look at these kids, these kids go out here and I think the NBA is more about, you know, the social thing around.

“They don’t want kids to be thinking that they can go on the basketball court and do the same thing that their hero do in the NBA. So they eliminate that.”

It is tough to argue with anything that Payton is saying.

Will today’s NBA players take Payton’s criticisms to heart and adjust accordingly? Time will tell.

Jennifer Withers Hoey

Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about Sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.