“Marcus Smart changed the game like I did in 1996”: Gary Payton has nothing but respect for the 2022 DPOY, praised Celtics guard ahead of Game 2

Gary Payton is all praise for Celtics PG irrespective of the fact that Marcus Smart goes against Gary Payton II in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Although the game of basketball has shifted more towards the perimeter than the rim and has become more guard-centric rather than centers in the past, it took a long time for a guard to become the Defensive Player of the Year.

When Gary Payton awarded Marcus Smart with the DPOY trophy it was just the second time in NBA that a point guard would win the ultimate reward for the defenders in the league.

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“The Glove” himself was the last recipient of it in 1996. And as fate would have it, 26 years later, when his son is playing his first Finals as Warriors’ top defensive guards, Smart is on the opposition leading Celtics’ defense.

But this didn’t stop the former champion with the Miami Heat who sat down with NBA TV’s courtside panel to discuss Smart’s brilliance in the Game 1 win and his importance going into Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Marcus Smart this season reminds Gary Payton of his 1996 season like how he changed the game

Payton alongside former Heat teammate Shaquille O’Neal, and Grant Hill and talked about how detrimental Smart is for the Celtics this season, and said the Celtics guard changed the game like he did 26 years back.

He laid out in simple terms how easy it is for the bigs to have an impact on defense while guards need to do a lot more work for the same.

The 9x All-Defense First Team member who played 17 seasons in the NBA and scored over 21,000 points, and had around 9,000 dimes, knows a thing or two about winning games.

But let’s see how impactful junior Payton and Smart will be when Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum will be determined to have a high-scoring game.

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