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
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.
This is what we're supposed to be here for. We're supposed to step up for things like this.
I didn't like him as light as he was,
He didn't like the 19 (points) and 10 (rebounds, actually 7.8) he was getting (in the playoffs). This year we'll get him back to 26 and 12 or 13, and we'll be fine.
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.
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.
He fooled us. Usually, we get the tantrum and all of that. He can say some mean stuff. But this time, he went to an opposite approach. I never thought I'd ever see that from him. He must have danced a good three or four minutes. He was good out there, twirling around, light on his feet. We got some spirit from that.
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 think we got to get a win to make it 2-2, to make people understand that we can beat them, that they don't have any advantage over us. We just have to make a statement like that.
We have a lot of new guys coming in that are going to have to learn the system. And we are going to have to get it together right away. I think that is where a lot of people are concerned about us. We have a good shot, we have a lot of talent here and we have to get cohesive very quickly.
When he bullies people, that's when he's at his best,
We always have to be the ones to give us a little energy.
We're more focused on the road. On the road, those hills we create for ourselves look a lot higher.
We've got to take it upon ourselves to play defense as individuals.