Gary Payton played point guard as fearlessly and with as much intensity on defense as anyone has ever done. He's equally as bold when it comes to dishing out his opinions about the sport he still loves.
The nine-time NBA All-Star believes he could impart a wealth of defensive wisdom to current players, but isn't convinced that it would be time well spent, even though Tim Grgurich, a longtime NBA assistant coach, has discussed the idea of establishing a Payton camp for point guards.
"Since there's not too much defense played in the NBA now, to get a guy, who wants to be in his mentality and say, you know what, 'I'm going to go play defense just like Gary Payton because I'm going to figure it out with him,' it would be great to do that. And I think a lot of guys want to do that, but nowadays you don't have to do that because ain't nobody going to guard you like that and then you can score as many points," Payton said with a hint of regret.