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
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.
I like him the way he is now. I think he just wanted to get in shape to show people he can do that. Shaq is Shaq when he's big and when he can muscle people around. I think people thought they could muscle him around. He didn't feel comfortable with that. ... It'll be a big difference.
It's not a lollygag thing. You've got to go hard on everything.
I'm going to try to help Jason as much as possible. He has never had a guy like me to guide him. When I come into camp, I'm going to try to help him. I'm not going to try to beat him up or beat him down.
I hope we've gotten past that sense of lackadaisical play.
It's been very hard coming from where I come from, starting all my time. But right now it's not about that. It's about what we have to accomplish to get to a championship.
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.
We're very close, and when he steps up for me like that, it's hard to tell him no.
We all had a skip in our step. We had to go out and prove we can play against a top team. We went out and established ourselves.
The simple fact is back in the day when (guard) Alvin Robertson and (guard) Derek Harper were guarding you, they could hand-check you and do everything else and you had to shoot over them. They were making it tough for you. You had to earn everything.
I didn't like him as light as he was. He should have been a little bulkier. That's when he's Shaq Diesel.
I didn't like him as light as he was,
Me and him are going to click real, real well, ... I'm going to take him under my wing. I'm going to make sure he doesn't get mad at situations where it's not even necessary.
What I think Pat is doing is he's trying to get us perfect. There's no coach that would come out and say, 'You're perfect,' because once you hear your coach say that, then we'll slip up and we'll start slacking. He's doing what he's supposed to. He's supposed to stay on us like that.