Gary Payton explained why he wouldn't trash-talk Rodman: "I would just play him hard"
Gary Payton has long been retired from the NBA, but for many hoops fans, The Glove is still the king of trash talk. During his playing years in the league, GP talked smack to every player in front of him, but apparently, he wouldn’t dare to do so against one player — Dennis Rodman .
According to Payton, he wouldn’t want to engage in a trash-talk battle with Rodman if they were matched up against each other for a few reasons. One, he and Dennis were tight off the court, but more importantly, Gary recognized that “Dennis the Menace” was also a master in getting inside his opponent’s head.
With that in mind, Payton recently revealed that he would’ve gone for a different approach in dealing with a player like Rodman. Instead of initiating the smack talk, the legendary point guard said he’d let The Worm do his thing and just try to beat him in his own game.
“Dennis Rodman… How would I lock him down? Dennis Rodman is one of my closest friends,” GP said on "NBA on Prime Video Philippines".
“What I would do with Dennis Rodman is that I wouldn’t get involved with him in talking,” he continued. “What I’d do is, I would just play him hard. If he goes back with stuff, I’ll go back right with him. I would try to put him in the same game he wants to put in. And we’ll see who wins that game.”
Rodman got the better of Payton
Gary and Dennis played different positions and never really had to go toe-to-toe with one another, per se, but they once faced each other in the Finals back in the ‘90s. In 1996, Payton and the Seattle Supersonics took on Rodman and the Chicago Bulls in an epic championship series.
Unfortunately for The Glove, Michael Jordan and the Bulls were too much to handle. Chicago closed out the series in six games and won its fourth NBA title. However, many, including GP and the Sonics, believed that the X factor in the Bulls team in that series wasn’t MJ. It was Rodman.
Payton could trash-talk anybody with no holds barred
Truth be told, it’s quite a shock to learn that there was one player whom Payton wouldn’t even try to talk trash with, given his reputation. However, once The Glove started opening up his mouth, there were no holds barred in what he would say.
“If somebody said they was out with my wife last night, I was out with yours too — cuz I was gone too, so it is what it is,” Payton once said. “S—t, we both had fun. F—k it, you know what I’m saying? If you want to get personal, I get personal with you, too.
“That meant I got them. I got them then. Their whole game is mine, you know what I’m saying?” he added. “That’s what I liked to do. I liked to get people to give up. Because after a while, they gonna pay more attention to me, and I’m gonna be killing them. Then all of a sudden that horn gonna go, and they gonna get subbed. So that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to get them out of their game, and that’s the way it was.”
All told, it’s fascinating to discover that Payton didn’t talk trash with anybody just because it was his signature style. As it turns out, GP also knew how to strategically use his sharp tongue.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Nov 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
