Gary Payton respects Steph Curry and believes he deserved to win the MVP back to back but he has a big problem with the fact Steph was the first ever unanimous winner of the award. When you first hear Payton talk, it sounds like he is hating on Steph but he really isn’t. It’s more about the voters themselves.
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While on Sirius XM NBA radio, Payton mentioned how he doesn’t like the fact Draymond Green is always complaining to refs when he doesn’t get a call his way. He still went on to commend Green for being an elite defender, the same way Payton was himself back in the day.
Then the topic of Curry’s back to back MVP’s came up and Payton voiced his displeasure with the voting process.
“People have to understand we don’t have an issue with Stephen Curry,” Payton told SiriusXM. “Stephen Curry doesn’t vote for himself. You had 131 people that voted for him. I’ve got an issue with them.”
“We forgot Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50 points and 30 rebounds,” Payton told SiriusXM. “You didn’t think he was a unanimous decision? Who else ever did that and scored 100 points in one game? And he didn’t even win it (in 1962). That’s what I’m trying to say. You look at Michael Jordan. When they set the record at 72-10 in 1996, he didn’t get all the votes. So you’re trying to tell me these reporters or whoever’s voting that you and them guys back then, they didn’t know that he was a unanimous decision? Don’t blame that on Stephen Curry. Blame that on them reporters.”
Payton told the radio station that the San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard and Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, who finished second and third in the voting, deserved first-place votes. […] “If you look at LeBron, what he does for his team, he does everything,” Payton said. “I still think he’s the best all-around basketball player. As we say, Stephen Curry was the best player this year but I’m saying all-around – who gives you assists, who gives you rebounding, who gives you points, who does a lot of things for his team to have it? If you take LeBron off that team, I don’t think Cleveland is a good team like that. If you Curry off of it, uh, right now I don’t know. They probably would win games. They wouldn’t have won 73, but they would win a lot of basketball games.”
Again, Payton brings up a legit issue about the voting process. How in the hell were there times MJ didn’t get a unanimous vote? What about Shaq? Wilt? The topic will always be a hot issue but it has nothing to do with Steph.
