Gary Payton and the Seattle SuperSonics faced off against Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson and the Chicago Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals.
The SuperSonics were heavy underdogs since they were going up against a Bulls team that won 72 games in the regular season.
On the latest episode of All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Payton revealed that Jackson used to put Scottie Pippen on him when he would start barking at MJ and His Airness would yell back:
“Going at Jordan was cool with me, I used to try to go at his dome all the time and get him out of it, but they had a coach in Phil Jackson who didn’t care about egos …
“Jordan would get out his game a little bit and start talking to me, Phil would always switch the game up and he would put Pippen on me.”
The Bulls won that series in Game 6 at home. Jordan captured his fourth title and Finals MVP on Father's Day. It was an emotional game for Jordan, as the Bulls superstar lost his father in June of 1993.
Jordan averaged 27.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists in the series. Payton was stellar as well. He put up 18.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists. And, most notably, was able to rattle Jordan, at least just a little.
During the '90s, the Bulls went 6-0 in the Finals, with Jordan capturing all six Finals MVPs.
Payton eventually won his first and only title in 2006 when the Miami Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks in six games behind a young Dwyane Wade.
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