Mumbai: For a seventh consecutive season, the NBA will see a different champion as the Indiana Pacers compete with Oklahoma City Thunder in the seven-game Finals series, starting on Friday. The Pacers have never won the marquee basketball title in their history, while the Thunder won the 1979 season, then as the Seattle SuperSonics.
For Gary Payton, the two teams with the most attractive style of play have made it to the final. Payton, the 2006 NBA champion with Miami Heat and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer explained that both teams play a defensive style.
“I would rather see a lot of defence than offence,” Payton said. “The two teams that have reached the final, (they are there) because they play defence, they make big stops.
“I think all the time in the playoffs, the teams that win the championships are the teams that play great defence. They both play defence, they both play great. They have five guys on the floor at all times that can go at each other. This is going to be a great series, I really think it is going to go to seven games.
The Pacers got to the finals for the first time since they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000, after beating the New York Knicks in the Western Conference Finals. Meanwhile, Thunder reached this far by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Eastern finals. They last reached the NBA final in 2012, when they lost to Miami.
The staunch defence from both teams reminds Payton of the style that was dominant during his playing days.
“In my era, we were only averaging about 85 points a game, in the 1990s. That’s what it was about. And if you can do that, you win games. If you are struggling with offence, but you hold them to 68 points, you are always in that match,” said Payton, who is in Mumbai to launch the NBA House.
“I don’t want to go to a game and see a team score 130 points – one player has 50 points and another has 55. I want to see somebody stop somebody. I want to see someone take accountability and take someone, who is valuable to a team, out of the game.”
Defensive discipline was a specialty for Payton, who was the first point guard (a typically attacking position) to be named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, when he won the accolade in 1996. Marcus Smart in 2022 has been the only other point guard to win the award so far.
“I didn’t care about scoring, I cared about stopping the best opponent. If I stopped him, that means I stopped the (opposition) – because they cannot function without him,” Payton said when asked about what kind of legacy he hoped he left behind.
“I want to be remembered as the first two-way player to play at both ends of the floor. But really, my legacy started as just being a complete basketball player, both ends of the floor. If I’m struggling with my offence, I don’t worry about it and just focus on the defence and stopping the other team. That’s my legacy, I don’t want anything else.”