Gary Payton
Gary Payton
Gary Dwayne Paytonis an American former professional basketball player. He started at the point guard position. He is best known for his 13-year tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics, and holds Seattle franchise records in points, assists, and steals. He also played with the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, the last with whom he won an NBA championship. He was nicknamed "The Glove" for his excellent defensive ability. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth23 July 1968
CityOakland, CA
They're all athletic and young and they're all free willing. They (Chicago) are playing really loose. It's going to be a good challenge. We're going to have Shaq back in there and all of us playing on the same page with everybody back.
Everybody's playing the way they're supposed to play. Everybody's doing their job. Everybody's being the role player that they've got to be and doing the things they need to do. It helps when you've got a lot of veterans on your team.
They wanted the scores to go up because they wanted the fans to come back. They want high-flying dunks, a lot of people scoring and that's what they're getting. The people they want to see score, they're getting that, and their TV ratings go up.
It's all about mentality. We play these teams four or five times a year anyway, so we just need to not do the things that caused us to lose to them in the regular season.
They've got a legit team. You can't go in there and say it's a win. You've got to take those guys seriously now.
A lot of guys are stepping up, a lot of things are happening for us that are good. Everybody's stepping in and playing their roles, so all we think about is winning right now. We're starting to jell a little bit.
It's got to be up to Shaq. If he hits the boards like that with us, we're going to win a lot of basketball games.