The Downbeat: Stockton > MJ Edition ... Wait, WUT???

Gary Payton caused quite a stir when he said this.

. John Stockton is because I liked him when I was playing basketball. Everyone said he was dirty. He wasn’t as athletic as us. But he was smarter than us. We knew what he was going to do. We knew he was going to set [tough] picks. We had all the videos on Utah. We were so dumb. We would get caught up with the picks and get mad at him. He would shoot eight times and make nine. Shoot eight free throws and make seven. He’d have 15 assists and four steals. A complete game. That’s just the way he was and I idolized him…"

Oh that's just Gary saying that John Stockton was a complete player. This is what set people off.

"Those battles were a little easier. I would have Jordan get mad at me and go back at me. He knew he was really talented and could do whatever he wanted to. But [Stockton] was more of a challenge to me than guarding someone that would talk back to me. When you talk back to me and say something to me it made my game go to another level. John was one who wouldn’t say nothing and you couldn’t figure him out. He’d keep going in the pick and rolls and he and Karl Malone would score a big bucket. At times I would guard Jordan and get him mad and into other things."

Now many who drink from breast milk that is the Air Jordan life might freak out about this statement. Those who watched John Stockton play will know different. Stockton could have been a great scorer. In fact, he was. But he wasn't a volume scorer because he believed in the team concept. He sacrificed for his team. It was that ability that made him difficult to guard.

Michael Jordan was a scorer. Everyone knows he could score on anybody and attempted, and succeeded, to do so. But that which made Michael Jordan great also made him one dimensional. John Stockton was unpredictable and unreadable. While Michael was known for his antics John Stockton was cold as ice on the court. His approach to the game of basketball was almost telekinetic. Karl Malone and he would read pick and rolls with deadly accuracy and make the flex offense look like an offensive tank that could make any defense bow down to its will. Gary Payton, while many mock him for his views on guarding Michael Jordan vs John Stockton, understood this being a point guard. He knew if a point guard could mask his decision making he would then become invincible on the court. The Floor General could be a god if his reads were stealth. Good on you, Gary, for telling people how you see the game rather than what every media pundit wants to believe it's like.

Are you going to be in the Indiana area? Want to see Gordon Hayward? Do I have a deal for you.

48 hours to #SVSP @ClayTerraceMall Grand Opening. Catch @JMV1070 on-site & @gordonhayward @thejaredfogle @Pacers

— Ralph Reiff (@RVReiff) September 3, 2013

Yes, Gordon Hayward will be there. If many of you don't know what SVSP is it is the Indiana equivalent of P3 except less beaches. It's the reason David Locke thought that Gordon Hayward wasn't being a good leader and meeting with the team in Santa Barbara.

This still pains me to read this. John Stockton described Jeff Hornacek as a godsend. Why did he say that? Was it because of his amazing shooting? Was it because of his flexibility in the offense? Was it because of his stout defense? Was it because of his free throw ritual? From Moni's Blog:

Jeff Hornacek was a "godsend." The Jazz went on a winning streak after his arrival and began winning consistently on the road for the first time. Basketball skills aside, Hornacek’s basketball IQ was invaluable to the Jazz.

During games, Horny would draw plays on his hand while calculating in his head the shooting percentages of every player on the floor. He would tell his teammates which opponents to let shoot and which teammates to give the ball to.

Yes. Cry, Jazz fans. Cry. That "godsend" used to be on the Utah Jazz coaching staff. Now he's collecting checks from the Phoenix Suns.

[Spoiler Alert: Tyrone Corbin was not mentioned as a godsend when he played alongside John Stockton for the Utah Jazz.]

Ben Golliver of the Point Forward wrote this wonderful tidbit about Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson. God have mercy on the Jazz if Tyrone Corbin loses his collective mind, or returns to it, and plays these guys.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to fully consider Jefferson and Biedrins purely as assets or, well, lemon-y non-assets. Jefferson, 33, last posted a Player Efficiency Rating above 15 (league average) in 2008-09. Last season, he averaged 3.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in 56 games for the Warriors, and he attempted a grand total of nine shots during two rounds of the playoffs. He is set to make $11 million this season, roughly the same amount of money that will be paid to Rajon Rondo, Joakim Noah, Ty Lawson, Tyreke Evans, Nicolas Batum and Tim Duncan. The major reason that he hasn’t been subjected to Andrea Bargnani-like derision is that he barely played in 2012-13.

Where to even begin with Biedrins? His career has been in a tailspin since 2008-09, when he averaged personal bests of 11.9 points and 11.2 rebounds. He bottomed out last season, averaging 0.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in 53 games. In the last four seasons, he’s shot a combined 19-for-78 (24.4 percent) from the free-throw line. Coach Mark Jackson resorted to in-game pep talks and standing ovations to try to pump up Biedrins (and swing the crowd behind him), but it didn’t really matter. How far gone is Biedrins inside his own head? Monta Ellis averaged 22 shots per game for the 2009-10 Warriors; Biedrins, who was once put through a "mental training program" by his agency to address his confidence issues, shot 21 times total last season, or once every 23.6 minutes. Did I mention that he is set to make $9 million this season?

You’ve heard the phrase "bang for your buck"? Jefferson and Biedrins offer whimpers for your millions. The one upshot: Both are on expiring contracts, a fact that transformed the pair from "basically untradable" to "barely tradable if everything breaks right" this summer.

And that’s when Warriors management stepped in to make its breaks, pawning off Jefferson and Biedrins (combined salary of $20 million for 2013-14), along with Rush ($4 million), two first-round picks and two second-round picks, to the rebuilding Jazz, one of the few teams in a position to 1) legally accept more than $20 million of salary without having to send out salary, and 2) willing to accept $20 million of dead weight.

DeAndre Jordan seriously is one funny guy. He seems like a guy anybody would love to hang out with. Case in point.

Now if the current Utah Jazz would do this who would be whom?