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Top defensive accolades: One Defensive Player of the Year award, nine All-Defensive 1st Team selections, one time NBA steals leader, eight years receiving Defensive Player of the Year votes
NBA rank: 5th in steals, 179th in defensive rebounds
One of just two players listed at point guard to ever win Defensive Player of the Year, Hall of Famer Gary Payton took home the award in 1995-96, a season that saw him lead the league in steals with 2.9. Payton finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year vote two other times in his career.
Without a doubt, Payton is the GOAT when it comes to point-guard defenders, as he had elite lateral quickness, fantastic hands and played with a whole lot of tenacity and swagger on that end of the floor, making defense look cool. He also had a knack for getting in opponents’ heads with his trash-talking prowess.
His defensive aptitude led the Seattle SuperSonics all the way to the Finals in ‘96, a championship series that maybe could have gone differently had Payton been tasked with defending Jordan earlier in the matchup (via Sports Illustrated):
Payton didn’t guard Jordan until Game 4 – MJ averaged 31 points on 46.2 percent from the field in the first three games. He’s often said that his defense in Games 4 and 5 tired and took a toll on Jordan and that he wished he had guarded him before the SuperSonics went down 3-0 in the series “I was just coming off winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, first point guard to ever do it. Then all of a sudden, Jordan had got MVP. So Sports Illustrated put me on the cover of it – Mission Impossible, can I do it? And all of a sudden, they were putting the best defensive player in the NBA versus the best offensive player. I couldn’t guard him until Game 4. And I said forget this injury, we’re down 3-0, let’s try,” Payton said.
With Payton as his primary defender, Jordan’s numbers fell to 23.7 points on 36.7 percent shooting from the field over Games 4, 5 and 6 combined, two of which were victories for Seattle.
Regardless, Payton was a nine-time All-Defensive player, earning 1st Team honors all nine times, tied for the most ever. All in all, there’s no question he’s the best undersized defender the league has ever seen.
