Most people might’ve enjoyed ‘The Last Dance,’ but one part of it did not sit well with Gary Payton.
During one of the episodes, producers played a clip for Jordan that showed Gary Payton talking about how his defense rattled him during the 1996 NBA Finals.
Jordan made some meme-worthy faces and ended it by laughing hysterically.
“Oh you know I was hot! I was thinking about calling him at the time!” Payton told The Opinionated Podcast. “But you know what, that’s what I expect out of Mike, because I would have said the same thing. I’m not going to admit to nothing, I’m not going to admit to someone that D’d me up. I will always tell you at any time in my career, nobody gave me problems but one person and that’s John Stockton to me. So you know that is just the way the game goes.”
The Seattle SuperSonics fell to a 3-0 hole in the series when Payton told his head coach he wanted to guard Jordan.
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The move would force the series to six games and Jordan scored the least amount of points on average the next 3 games and his shooting percentages noticeably went down. Jordan averaged only 23 points per game in the last three games of the series.
“I’m not mad at Mike, because Mike didn’t have too many games that somebody D’d him up. He always was dominant but I think me and [Pistons point guard] Joe Dumars were a thorn in his side, I really do think that. And I’m glad he said that because I wouldn’t expect nothing else from him. I don’t expect nothing else from Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan, that’s why we talk about him, that’s why we see a 10-week, Last Dance on him, because that’s just the way it is.
“He is the guy that we’re all talking about as the greatest basketball player that ever played and that’s fine and I don’t expect nothing less from him.”
