22:37 / 01.01.2004
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SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/154705_gp31.html
Emotions running high for Payton's return to Seattle
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
By DANNY O'NEIL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
His house on the Eastside: Sold.
His Sonics locker: Repossessed and passed on to Richie Frahm.
In fact, the only thing Gary Payton has left in Seattle is his boat ... and about 12 years of history that will come floating to the surface Friday, when the Glove and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates come to town to play the Sonics.
Actually, float is too passive. The emotions at this intersection of past and present are already bubbling.
"We're winning basketball games, they're still the Seattle SuperSonics," he said. "They're still 13-14, or whatever they are."
Payton knew exactly what the Sonics' record was when he spoke Sunday evening in Los Angeles. Standing in the Lakers locker room, two states south and less than a week away from playing his former team for the first time, he did his best to downplay the significance of Friday's game.
"It's just great for the fans," Payton said. "I'll be happy to see the fans again, but other than that, I don't take nothing from it."
Huh? When Payton was asked about the game the first week of the regular season, he knew the exact date.
The star is coming back to the city where he came of age. He is the Sonics' career leader in more than 10 different categories -- from points to assists to steals to games played to minutes on the floor. Friday, he plays against Seattle for the first time since the Feb. 20 trade sent him to Milwaukee.
Except it's more complicated than a simple homecoming. There's hostility, too.
"I had a relationship with the fans," Payton said. "The fans know I did a lot for Seattle in the 12 years I was there. It's not against the city of Seattle or the fans. It's not against them. We had a falling out (with,0) the organization. The new people who took over the organization, we weren't together.
"I don't think they're anything now, anyway."
That's more like it.
What, you're surprised Payton is coming back with an edge? That 10 months haven't dulled the resentment over being traded from the only pro franchise he'd played for?
The question is whether he's going to try and give the Sonics a piece of his mind in addition to scoring a boatload of points. When owner Howard Schultz is sitting courtside, fresh off his December vacation, will Payton start spitting Sprewellian invective? You know, a la Latrell last week in New York, when he verbally abused Knicks owner James Dolan in his first game against his former team, which brought a $25,000 fine.
Ever think about that, Gary? He smiles, shakes his head.
"Howard, I don't look at him no more," Payton said. "He isn't a big part of me no more. It's not really that. I'm going to go back and play the way I've been playing."
That's the polite veneer, applied like varnish to gloss over a very real anger that is visible through the cracks. Like when he walked out of the locker room on Sunday after Los Angeles' victory over Boston.
See you in Seattle, Gary?
"You know I'll be there," he said. "I wouldn't miss this one."
What if Schultz missed it? "He better because I got something to say to his punk ass."
Payton laughs. Maybe he's joking. Yeah, and maybe this game doesn't mean anything.
Actually, Schultz won't be missing the game. He'll be courtside. President and CEO Wally Walker, too.
"Everyone in the organization has tremendous respect for Gary's great 12-plus years as a Sonic," Walker said. "The right thing to do is to honor those memories.
"It appears from the outside that Gary has got himself into a great situation with the Lakers, and we're encouraged by our direction and our group of guys."
The Sonics are undeniably better off because of the trade in which they acquired Ray Allen, Ronald Murray and the draft pick used to select Luke Ridnour for Payton -- who may not have re-signed with Seattle -- and Desmond Mason. Seattle was 22-30 last season before the trade, and is 33-26 since, despite the fact Allen missed 25 games.
Logic is one thing. The emotional attachment of this city to the nine-time All-Star is another. It's a blade that cuts both ways.
The day after the trade, Payton was invited to KeyArena for Seattle's game against Milwaukee. He couldn't play because the three players the Sonics received weren't going to play, but the franchise had planned a tribute and was going to give him a microphone to address the sold-out crowd. If there's a way to electrify dynamite, it's giving a peeved Payton an open mike.He didn't attend.
For Friday's game, Eric Goodwin -- one of Payton's agents -- said he contacted the Sonics about dropping any planned tribute.
"He loves the Seattle fans," Goodwin said yesterday. "He wants to say thank you, but he wants to do it in his own way. What would be so wrong with announcing him like the rest of the Lakers and let people express themselves in their own way?"
This isn't just another game. Payton isn't just another opponent.
It's the franchise's all-time best player facing his former team -- and there's drama even over the tribute.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/154897_gp01.html
On court and off, Payton's gusto is back
Far from Seattle gloom, L.A.'s a welcome change
Thursday, January 1, 2004
By DANNY O'NEIL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
LOS ANGELES -- Ninety minutes to tipoff, and Gary Payton is moving like a hummingbird in the Lakers locker room.
He moves from spot to spot, sticking his nose in while never quite staying stationary.
To the training room, where Shaquille O'Neal is on a table, Payton walks in, chirping questions only muffled by the closed door. Observers should know by now Payton's never entirely muted.
Then to the lounge off to the side of the locker room, where Payton becomes the latest voice -- and by far the loudest -- to lob abuse at Devean George after George's home-state Minnesota Vikings fell from the NFL playoffs on the final play of their season.
Chatter trails behind, like the wake of a boat. It's the patter of Payton's happiness in Los Angeles.
"(Shoot,0), I'm winning," he said. "I don't have to do as much. I don't have to pound my body. I'm having fun. I'm playing the way I want to play.
"It has been a joyful thing."
His pregame circuit turns to the court, where Jannero Pargo and Jamal Sampson are the only other Lakers warming up when Payton takes the floor, a nine-time All-Star taking practice shots alongside the team's injured-list stowaways and practice fodder. It has been years since Payton was seen on the court this early before a home game in Seattle. On this Sunday, Payton even practices some free throws, in part to test his injured thumb.
It's an energy, an enthusiasm that seemed to be missing in Payton's final season in Seattle.
Not missing from the games, mind you. This is a two-time Olympian who hasn't averaged fewer than 19 points in a game in nine years. He isn't rediscovering a zeal for the game; he never lost it in the first place. It's his zest in the locker room that has returned.
In his final season in Seattle, Payton was more likely to be alone in the whirlpool before a game than talking with teammates. That's an isolation play no one wants to run. He was the oldest player on a team that had set its goal to get younger. He was a player whose competitive fire and fury burned bright enough to leave scorched-earth rings of alienation at times.
It added up to pretty frequent speculation about his future.
"It was really getting to be a pain in the (butt,0) for the last two years," Payton said. "You're always hearing stuff in the paper. ... When it wears onto you like that, you just start saying, 'Let's just get out of here and just start over and start anew.' "
In 1996, he was the league's defensive player of the year and the No. 2 scorer for the Sonics when they reached the NBA Finals. That summer he re-signed with Seattle -- seven years, $85 million. Three years later, he was the only player left from the team that made the finals. That transition game took a toll on Payton like no fast break ever could.
"Every year you come with a new group of guys," Payton said. "You're adding like five or six to the group that you've got to adjust to. It was hard. We didn't ever have a team that we stayed with after the '97 season. It was like, 'OK, what five guys are we going to have again now with the new group?' "
In Los Angeles, Payton has signed a two-year, $10 million deal to be part of the Lakers' Quad Squad, a nickname bestowed by J.A. Adande of the Los Angeles Times. They have four players likely to be Hall of Famers on the roster and also have the best record in the league. Their path to a league title is not a question of talent but of teamwork between four alpha-male personalities.
Payton is the point guard, averaging 13.8 points, but that's deceiving. He's in a new role: His primary job in the offense is pushing the ball up the floor. He looks as fast as ever, his scoring knack near the basket still uncanny for a 6-foot-4 guard who plays below the rim.
"He's really the engine that kind of drives us," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "He pushes the ball, runs the game, keeps the energy going and (is,0) the thrust of our offense. That has been real important for us."
So has his personality. On a team chock full of personalities, one of the smallest players has one of the biggest. Paired with O'Neal, Payton can seem like the yipping Chihuahua bouncing around O'Neal, the league's biggest bulldog. But Payton has plenty of bite in him.
When O'Neal entered the locker room, he stopped to listen to Payton.
"What are you talking about?" O'Neal asked.
Seattle.
O'Neal said something that was difficult to understand because he's really tall and his voice is very low. Maybe it's just a case of the mumbles. What he said ended with, "how about giving them 60?"
Payton is not difficult to understand. When he talks, there's never an auditory deficit.
"Who'll give them 60?" he asked.
"You," O'Neal said, nodding at his teammate.
"Well, we all know you can't score in Seattle," Payton said.
Later, Payton found George inside a room off to the side where he began a harangue that carried well beyond the door. They were verbal uppercuts in a one-sided fight over the end of the NFL season.
"The same thing makes you laugh, will make you cry," Payton shouted.
Apparently, George offered some sort of protest, because Payton repeated it twice more, each one louder than the previous time.
Payton emerged, smiling.
"Kind of tough on him, G.P." another reporter said.
Payton smiled.
"We're just playing," he said.
Payton just playing. It's good to see.
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