As the old adage goes, iron does indeed sharpen iron. There's no way for anyone to be better at their field of expertise without having to test the limits of their capabilities relative to that of other experts. And on Wednesday night, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry gave Gary Payton II his due flowers for pushing Curry to a degree that no other teammate of his does.

Curry, in the aftermath of scoring an impressive step-back game-winning triple over the outstretched arms of Sacramento Kings star De'Aaron Fox, paid the Warriors defensive specialist the ultimate compliment by saying that coming up against his defense during training sessions has dampened the impact of others' defense towards him.

“Hey Gary said, ‘There's no better defense than he plays on me in practice, so that was nothing,'” Curry told the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast after the Warriors' 116-115 preseason win over the Kings. “With all the challenges and Mike Brown trying to get an extra possession, it's time to go home, put the kids to bed.”

That is definitely an interesting remark which puts in perspective just how incredible an on-ball defender Gary Payton II is if Stephen Curry — the Warriors' greatest player of all time — is the one paying him this big of a compliment. Curry has encountered a ton of elite defenders in his time. He has come up against the likes of Patrick Beverley, Jrue Holiday, Andre Roberson, Matthew Dellavedova, Marcus Smart, and Derrick White, among others, in the grand stage of the postseason, so Payton must truly be a suffocating defender if he's in rarefied air from Curry's point of view.

It also adds an interesting wrinkle as to why the Warriors re-acquired Payton back in February in the trade that sent James Wiseman, the second overall pick of the 2020 NBA Draft, to the Detroit Pistons. It seems as though Payton is the kind of player whose mere presence elevates the game of everyone on the team due to the intensity he brings during practice, the impact of which couldn't go lost on Steve Kerr and company given the team's desire to compete for a fifth championship in the span of 10 years.