Gary Payton stared at the ESPN camera before him, feeling somewhat dazed.
He couldn't recall the last time he was so much in the spotlight during the playoffs.
Was it 1996?
And now?
It's already 2006.
Gary Payton always felt that his rivalry with Roger had just happened, that he'd only temporarily lost to Roger and still had a chance to come back.
But unwittingly, this "temporarily" had already spanned a decade.
Over the past ten years, Roger transformed from "the most formidable challenger to Michael Jordan" to "the undisputed greatest in basketball history."
In the past decade, the league's best power forward moved from Karl Malone and Charles Barkley to the San Antonio Stone Buddha.
In the past decade, three-pointers have shifted from a trivial skill to a staple for most star players on the outside.
During these years, Gary Payton transitioned from the "historically best defensive guard" to a "down-and-out Knight wandering around."
