Every shot attempt from Michael Jordan with Gary Payton as the primary defender in the 1996 NBA Finals

I tried not to include any screens or transistion stuff where one or the other was at a clear disadvantage due to other players and this is all hand tracked so probably not going to be perfect

Nice job editing. Glove had a point in Last Dance.

Someone else blocks Jordan but Payton gets the credit lmao

do you think payton was not the primary defender on that play?

I mean I get the idea. It just gets messy when Payton outright gets beat but gets saved by a contest from someone else entirely, especially when he's not funneling him into the contest

That is a fair point and it's why for any stat like these I always like to show the film so you can make observations on a play by play basis

I give mj even more credit after seeing this breakdown. He had one of the lowest scoring supporting casts ever so every shot was meaningful, he got fouled on a couple and missed a few easy ones he usually doesn't miss. He admitted that with father's day approaching he was a little unfocused as well since its the first finals after his dad for murdered. And gp gets tons of credit too for making mj work

He missed several shots that he usually makes. Payton also played good defense by not allowing easy scores 55.7%ts is very good for that era. +3.3%rTS. For comparison, LeBron in 2015 Finals was 47.7% for the whirl series and significantly worse when guarded by Iggy. I can’t find ts% when guarded by Iggy but he was 34%fg va Iggy and 44% vs others.

Am i crazy to think the defense wasn't that crazy? Lowkey seemed like he was just broke and missing pretty makeable shots for a stretch

I appreciate the effort and video. - Some of this is good defense particularly ball denial by GP - A lot of of this help defense which is fine. That’s part of the game. - Some of it is MJ missing bunnies 🐰 - Some of it is GP previously guarding MJ but nowhere near MJ when he gets the shot attempt up. I think it’s fine if you didn’t want to include a bunch of screens but I probably would’ve included footage where GP was fouling MJ and it wasn’t an And1.

Trash era. Pat Bev would be a HOFr in this era.

One of the many 6’3 and below players that guarded MJ. Modern NBA, guys like Kawhi, LeBron, Iguodala would be locking that shit up

If Jordan makes those easy shots, he would have had a much better series. Not a surprise next season in 2 games vs Payton, Jordan scored 45pts and 32pts.

U posted this to prove what. Jordan got to every spot with ease and some were wide open attempts that he missed. Most of it wasnt even Payton defense he was getting blew by with ease

To prove nothing tbh. I just know it was/has been a discussion so while I was going through this series doing highlights I also did this. If the stats were much better I still would have posted I just wanted to see what it looked like

I get why he said Gary Payton wasn’t a problem. He was missing shots he usually hits

MJ was just missing easy ones he usually nails. The mitten wasn’t stopping anything

Let’s not confuse off shooting nights with great defense. Didn’t look like he had any trouble getting to his spots, he just missed.

Credit to GP for making MJ work hard. Ball denial and forcing players away from their spots is good D. But thats not really what happened here. Even tho MJ worked hard, he still got most of his shots. He simply missed simple ones. I wouldnt give GP too much

Mike had to work on every shot attempt. Great breakdown.

Gary couldn’t guard him 1v1 but Mj was missing hella easy ones too

Very uncharacteristic of mike to miss at least 4 easy ass bunnies

He missed some shots he normally makes but it’s part of the game. Also shows his game wasn’t always perfect. Peyton presented a challenge to him in terms of direction but other than that Jordan got what he wanted.

lol you be pulling the most random footage😂 GOAT stuff

Old heads seeing this today and calling travel btw. No matter how many times I tell them this ain’t nothing new…it just looks different in a step back... But whatever 😂

Gary did a good job as the DEFENSIVE player of the year. But the Bulls were never down in that series, so why do we need to retroactively talk about something that didn't affect the outcome? That's what I hate about the "Bill Russell shot poorly" argument. MF won. Every time.

Jordan still was getting whatever he wanted

One of MJ’s biggest advantages was that he was pretty big for a ‘guard’ He was really a wing, but was constantly matched up against guards on who he had 2-3 inches and 20-30lbs Here it’s on full display but congrats to GP for effort And most of the wings were bigger and slower

idc what your reasoning for posting this was but this move was super elite 🔥🐐

Bruh was pulling any and everything. Just gunning😭

What this doesn’t show is GP making Jordan work when he doesnt have the ball on a possession. He tired him out a little which caused some of those open misses.

14/25=0.56% FG, 17/18=0.944% FT NBA Facts Self Research showed, Sonics always sending help with Payton to MJ! Gm 1, 2/2=100% FG, 2/2 FT Gm 2, 0/0 Gm 3, 1/3=0.333% FG Gm 4, 2/6=0.333% FG, 4/5 FT Gm 5, 6/9=0.667% FG, 3/3 FT Gm 6, 3/5=0.60% FG, 8/8 FT.

To me, watching this doesn't make me think less of Jordan's greatness, but it does remind me what an all-time defender Payton was.

@BranchDPOY MJ was building a school in Haiti with all of f those bricks

Man I’m not even being a hater but jordan was being aggressively triple teamed and was still going to the hole. I’ve never seen LeBron played like that he immediately passes the ball for the wide open brick then gets mad at Jae crowder lolz

Jordan has no touch around the rim

amazing job by gp giving up what 5 inches?

This is all with an undersized point guard on him by the way. This is probably the best defender he ever had on him in any of his finals. Kobe and Bron faced FAR better defenders. Imagine Jordan being guarded by Kawhi or Taeshawn Prince 😂 he’d be in jail.