Gary Payton and Derrick Rose gave the same interview about two different players. Curious what you guys think about it.
INTERVIEWER: You've actually said that John Stockton was harder to guard than Michael Jordan. Cuz I guess that Stockton wouldn't react to your trash talk at all. He would just look right through you and keep scoring.
PAYTON: Yes. Like a stone face. So, he was very hard for me to guard. And I used to hate going into Utah all the time. I can't deal with that. I have to always focus on him. But it's a difference between him. I got to guard him 94 ft. I got to think about coming off of picks. He throwing passes. He coming back trying to steal basketballs. He always moving. He's taking charges on me. He doing a lot of things. He only played 34 minutes. That's what Jerry Sloan played him. And then when you look up, he shot the ball 10 times. He made eight. He shot seven free throws. He made all seven. Next thing you know, you look up, he got 16 assists. Then you think about it and you say, "Dang, he got five, six rebounds." Yeah.
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INTERVIEWER: Who is the hardest person that you had to defend in your entire career?
ROSE: I hated dudes that acted like they were real point guards. Like Rondo. You know, legit point guards that didn't care about scoring and you couldn't phase them by how much you scored cuz they don't care about that. They care about just winning the game. I hated guys like that because I wanted my scoring to get to you or try to rattle you and it never rattled him. He still played the same way. I could have 30. He still don't care about his points. He's still not trying to score. He's still telling guys how to where to go, how to organize the offense. And it was just a mind game letting me know that "I don't give a fuck about points. At the end of the game, you lost. That's the only thing I care about."
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Both these clips are on Youtube but I don't know what the rules are these days about linking there.
I noticed this while listening to a few different clips lately and it seems counter-intuitive since in some ways you'd think the guys who go one-on-one and talk the most trash might be considered the toughest match-ups, but both guys here said the opposite.