LeBron James' back-to-back NBA titles and four league MVP awards aside, Gary Payton still considers Kobe Bryant the best player in the NBA.
Payton recently told InsideHoops.com "Kobe Bryant to me, is still the best basketball player in my mind. He played with me and he was in my era. I still love him to death.."
Rather by coincidence or design given his upcoming induction into the NBA Hall of Fame, several of Payton's recent statements have shockingly made news, including his declaration he found former Utah Jazz Hall of Fame guard John Stockton harder to defend than the legendary Michael Jordan.
"Those battles were a little easier," Payton told InsideHoops of his mano mano showdowns with Jordan.
" He knew he was really talented and could do whatever he wanted to do. But Stockton was more of a challenge to me than guarding someone that would talk back to me. When you talk back to me and say something to me it made my game go to another level.. At times I would guard Jordan and get him mad and into other things."
On the subject of Bryant, Payton was directly asked what he makes of the one season The Black Mamba spent with Dwight Howard before Howard bolted via free agency to Houston.
"It's a player doing what he wants to do," Payton said of Howard's decision. "The Lakers knew what they were getting into when they got him. They gambled and lost the game."
Even with that. Payton doesn;t bet against the Lakers, mainly because they still have Bryant.
"He's a little brother to me," Payton said of Bryant. "They're going to struggle for a little while, and Kobe is on his way out. He has two more years on his contract and they will probably sign him back another two years and try to rebuild. They're going to struggle, but the Lakers will come back."
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