Throughout his illustrious 17-year NBA career, Gary Payton has played alongside legends like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, and Karl Malone.
However, the two-way guard says high-flying forward Shawn Kemp is his favorite teammate of all time.
Payton credits the success of his career to Kemp, whom he played alongside with from 1990 to 97 on the Seattle Supersonics.
The two formed the lethal tandem "Sonic Boom," which bore numerous All-Star appearances and was capped off by a memorable run to the 1996 NBA Finals, where they lost against the 72-10 Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman.
"If it wasn't me and Shawn Kemp, there wouldn't be a Gary Payton in the Hall of Fame. There wouldn't be a Gary Payton talking the way he is," Payton said during a meet and greet session hosted by NBA Philippines for media partners and advertisers.
"The only basketball player that everybody asks me all the time [is who's] my favorite [teammate] and so people stop asking me this question in interviews, it's always going to be Shawn Kemp," he added.
When asked if he sees a similar tandem in today's NBA, he answered in the negative.
"I don't care who said you could put Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, you can do [Chris Paul] and [Devin] Booker, [Anthony Davis] and LeBron [James]. I don't think nobody plays like me and Shawn Kemp in this era. It just is. That's my opinion. I care less about what people think," said the nine-time All-Defensive player.
He also shot down people trying to discredit the duo's efforts as a mere product of their time and inability to do the same feats in the present.
"Like nowadays, people in their era, they were too slow, they were not good like we were, the caliber of players, they weren't athletic. We were 20 and 21 years old, too. Remember that," responded Payton.
"Don't get it twisted about what we were doing because we could compete against you too. We never said you couldn't compete with us. We're not saying that. I just say, get your era, it's your era, leave it alone. I'm not comparing my era to yours, don't compare [yours] to mine," continued the one-time NBA Champion.
Payton, who earned the moniker "The Glove" due to his ball-hawking skills, says there are currently two guards in the league that could compare to his brand of basketball.
"There are only two guys that I think that do that like me and play that way and that is [Marcus] Smart from Boston and [Patrick] Beverley from the Clippers," shared Payton.
"They are up there because they have that dog in them and they try to play you 94 feet and get into you. I think Beverley needs to slow down and control it a little bit more because a lot of players are getting into him a little bit, but he still got it. I think Smart is doing it the best way because he picks his spots and he does it well," expounded Payton.