Gary Payton: Rondo one of only 3 true PG’s in the NBA

Gary Payton is one of the NBA’s all time great point guards.  Yeah, I used a picture of him as a Celtic, but this is the dude who made a living throwing Shawn Kemp some sick alley oops.  If you’re too young to have seen him play, just watch this video and be careful not to hurt your jaw as it drops watching some of these plays (an alley oop from your knees?  Really, Glove?)

So he knows a thing or two about point guarding, and according to The Glove, there are only three true point guards in the NBA, and Rajon Rondo’s one of them.

“There’s only three true point guard right now in the NBA, and people don’t understand what true point guards are.  True point guards are people who can take a basketball team and get assists, be a coach, score when has to, play defense.  I think Chris Paul does that very well.  I think Tony Parker does it very well.  And people who don’t like this kid, Rondo, is crazy. I think his attitude might not be the way people want it to be, but Rondo is a great basketball player and a great point guard.  He can do all of them things.  He can get you a triple double when he wants to”

You can listen to him tell Justin Termine on SirusXM right here:

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This, I think, is actually at the heart of the heated Rondo debate. A lot of people will dance around a lot of criticisms about Rondo when all they really want is a Damian Lillard-type scoring point guard. Most of the guys thrown out on people’s wish lists often have a lot of the same deficiencies as Rondo, but they’re scorers first and passers second.

One of the big trends over recent years has been the “position-less” NBA.  Rondo is a throwback to the Jason Kidd days where  positions were more defined and point guards would be criticized for trying to score too much. Today, big scoring has become an expectation from the position.  Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, and others are non-traditional point guards who are big-time scorers who shoot first and pass second.

Rondo’s not in that mold, and never will be. So Payton’s right to call him a “true” point guard. Rondo-type players don’t exist much anymore.