And The Glove’s reaction:

Oh you know I was hot! I was thinking about calling him at the time! ‘But you know what, that’s what I expect out of Mike, because I would have said the same thing. I’m not going to admit to nothing, I’m not going to admit to someone that deed me up . ‘I will always tell you at anytime in my career, nobody gave me problems but one person and that’s John Stockton to me. So you know that is just the way the game goes.

‘I’m not mad at Mike, because Mike didn’t have too many games that somebody deed him up. He always was dominant but I think me and [Pistons point guard] Joe Dumars were a thorn in his side, I really do think that. ‘And I’m glad he said that because I wouldn’t expect nothing else from him. I don’t expect nothing else from Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan, that’s why we talk about him, that’s why we see a 10-week, Last Dance on him, because that’s just the way it is.

‘He is the guy that we’re all talking about as the greatest basketball player that ever played and that’s fine and I don’t expect nothing less from him.’

On why he was so fired up to face MJ and so eager to talk trash, Payton continued:

‘I didn’t give him respect like that. Everybody knew it, I didn’t give him respect like that. I went at him. That was my game of the year, for me. Me and him.

I only played him twice so that was my game of the year, to go at him, and I knew he was going to come back at me, talking, talking, talk, talk, talk. And it was so fun. It was fun talking with him and going back and forth. ‘So that was the thing, because Mike was so competitive, he couldn’t resist not talking to you if you’re talking crazy to him. That was just him. And I was having fun with it and I looked forward to going to Chicago and him coming to Seattle because I knew that was my highlight of the year and I had to show up. ‘If I’m the defensive player and he’s the number one player in the league as in scoring and everything, I have to go at him. I have to make it understandable that I’m the defensive dude, if he’s going to go through me, then he can go through anybody in the NBA at the time.’

Payton was a great trash talker, but you can’t trash talk the GOAT, then or now. 

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