Gary Payton Says Kobe Bryant Is Still The Best In The NBA
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Gary Payton will be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame this Sunday following a career where he became one of the NBA’s most iconic figures with his stellar on ball defense, his run and gun offensive style with Shawn Kemp, and his ability to trash talk with the best of them.

Payton sat down with Yahoo! Sports’ Marc Spears to talk about all of that, and the current state of the Lakers, in which he had this to say about Kobe Bryant.

“[…] 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. He’s a little brother to me.”

Even with the emergence of guys like Lebron James and Kevin Durant, Payton still thinks Bryant is the best player in the NBA.

Payton would go on to say that he thinks that the Lakers are going to struggle for a few years and that losing in the Finals to the Bulls was more disappointing than losing to the Pistons with the Lakers in 2004.

Payton would play in three NBA Finals (1996, 2004,2006) and would win in 2006 with the Miami Heat. He averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 assists during career.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Check out the top 5 Lakers Finals moments and don’t forget to subscribe to our Lakers Nation YouTube Channel!

You May Also Like

With Steve Nash on Board, Expectations of Mike Brown Are Higher Than Ever

It has been a whirlwind in Los Angeles for the past week…

Lakers News: Wesley Johnson Injures Knee In First Preseason Game

UPDATED (October 8, 12:57 PM): Wesley Johnson will play tomorrow against the…

Julius Randle Says ‘Couldn’t Be More Blessed’ To Land With Lakers

Please enable Javascript to watch this video The newest member of the…

Lakers News: Tracy McGrady Defends Kobe Bryant In Greatest Of All-Time Debate

The Los Angeles Lakers have had a long list of stars put on their jersey over the years, with Kobe Bryant being the…