Gary Payton wasn’t nicknamed “The Glove” for no reason. Not only was Payton the first point guard to ever win the Defensive Player of the Year award in 1996, he was also selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team in nine consecutive seasons. He’s also credited with playing some of the toughest defense against arguably the GOAT in basketball, Michael Jordan, holding his Airness to 6-19 shooting in Game 4 of the 1996 NBA Finals and 5-19 shooting in Game 6.
“The Glove” was also notorious for trash talking skills, with legendary players like Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Kidd attesting to Payton’s smack talk game. When it comes to trash talk however, there was only one player who had Payton’s number: Larry Bird.
“He used to tell me, ‘Look here, man, I’m gonna go shoot this motherf—— jumper in your face right there in that corner, and it’s gonna be your Christmas present. I’m gonna wrap it up and bust your head open,'” Payton recounted on the “Throwing Bones” podcast.
Payton said that Bird was one of the few players whose game-long trash talk was consummated by his elite playing ability — and that’s what made him one of the “coldest” players ever in the NBA.
“All that s— β he was the coldest dude I ever seen with that s—, man. Everybody be talking about these great greats, you know. We always mentioning him,” Payton added. “He was the s—, yeah, the s—. He’ll give it to you any way he wanted toβ any way he wanted to. Larry Bird was cold. Cold dude. Real cold.”
Gary Payton’s Christmas present wasn’t the only time “The Glove” vividly remembered Bird trash talking him. Payton recalled another story where the legendary Celtics forward told him he was going to shoot and score on him from wherever he wanted on the court, even if he told Payton where he was going to be shooting from beforehand.
“Right at the Garden on his last leg, we are playing them, and he told me, ‘Young fella, let me tell you something. I’m going to jump anywhere I want to,” Payton told All Basketball TV. “You are supposed to be a great defender. I am going to make sure I tell you where I am going to shoot the ball at.’ I was like, ‘come on, man; you are not going to shoot the ball.’ So he said ‘I will take you to that corner there, and I will give you something, and it’s going to be this jumper.’ He turned around, raised up, and it was all net.”
Payton recollects that the experience made him realize that Bird’s trash talk wasn’t just an act of embellishment — it legitimately made Payton analyze the situation into which he was put when playing against Bird on the court.
“I said ‘s**t, I am not going to mess with you no more.’ That is a veteran knowing he can play and what he can do. He knew I was smaller than him; he could shot over me, and he can create space. He knew how to neutralize me by turning his back and make me have to go through him. If I reach on him, he would turn and spin and get away from me. That is just being smart about the game,” Payton added.
What did you think of the this installment of SportsHyped’s Larry Bird trash talk stories: Gary Payton’s Christmas present? Let us know in the comments.
