In a recent interview, Hall of Famer Gary Payton claimed that the NBA was at its best in the 1990s. And, here is why....
Gary Payton is not the biggest fan of the current NBA and has claimed that the 1990s were the best for the sport. The 1996 Defensive Player for the Year preferred the more defence-oriented, slower-paced era of 1990s basketball as compared to the modern-day. Payton, who made five straight all-star teams between 1994 and 1998, is not the biggest fan of the three-point revolution and the increase in transition opportunities. Payton's son Gary Payton II currently plays with the Golden State Warriors, who have two of the greatest modern-day shooters of all time with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
In his recent interview, Payton said, "It's different because we were in a different era. Our era was us taking pride in more than one thing; this era is about scoring. Our era was about defence, being rough, getting out there, and getting it done. This era is about shooting threes, getting up and down, and entertainment. It is what it is, and I can't knock anyone for it. We might have our opinion and judge it, but I played in what I think was the best era ever. I think the '90s was the best era ever."
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Debates between the best era and specifically between the 90s and modern-day have been highly prevalent, arguably the two greatest players of all time coming from the respective generations, Michael Jordan and Lebron James. Physicality has been another talking point as whistles in the modern day are way more common, and fewer significant fights break out compared to previous eras of basketball. Cedric Maxwell, a star in the 1980s, said the following after some Draymond Green antics in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, "That s**t Draymond Green was doing, during the '80s, he would have got knocked the f--- out.".
