Gary Payton
Xavier McDaniel made me respect him. I thought I could do anything I wanted to. He grabbed me one time and almost choked me out. He said, 'You're going to do this. You're going to go get coffee. You're going to go get doughnuts.' It's a game of respect.Collection: Respect
I would never have wanted to play with Magic Johnson, I would never have wanted to play with Michael Jordan, I would never have wanted to play with Karl Malone or John Stockton in my prime. We wanted to play against the Shaqs, the Kobes.
Kobe Bryant, to me, is still the best basketball player in my mind. He played with me and he was in my era. I still love him to death. He's a little brother to me.
I became real good friends with John Stockton and Karl Malone and am still good friends with them to this day. It was always good to go see them and then play with them in the 1996 Olympics as well. I idolized John Stockton at the time, I tried to model my game after him.
George Gervin was my childhood idol since I was little. In Oakland I had all his posters on my wall.
You make sacrifices. You sacrifice yourself. Do you want to possibly win a championship? Or do you want to be the same person you were when you were 20 and get those same numbers?
Tim Hardaway was a guy who had his crossover and then he could shoot a jump shot and he could get to the bucket.
I haven't gotten in any trouble off the floor.
You can't regret anything - it's over with.
I've always liked Deron Williams because has the same mentality as me.
Don't hate, just play better, and then get that money.
In my day I think the toughest was Derek Harper. The old-school Derek Harper. He was tough. He had the most toughest, nastiest game ever. I hated playing against him because he would always try to rip you, and try to talk to you. People just didn't really know that about Derek Harper. I used to hate bringing the ball up against him, really.
When you talk back to me and say something to me it made my game go to another level.
You don't hear about me being at parties, going out and gettin' drunk.
I want to finish my career in Seattle but it's rocky.
Money and all that stuff doesn't equal a ring, because you'll always be in the books as winning a championship and being on one of the best teams ever to play the game.
I've already gotten the big paychecks. I'll be fine.
People always talk about first-ballot Hall of Famer and all that stuff, but it doesn't really make a difference. Once you get in there, you're a Hall of Famer. It doesn't matter if you get in on the first, second or third ballot. It's the same thing.
It's just a great honor to even be associated with the Hall of Fame and get in. If I eventually do make it, it will be a great honor, and I don't care if it's the first or second time because it's an honor for anyone to make the Hall of Fame.
Seattle deserves a team. They got robbed of their basketball team.
As people know in coaching, you can get fired and hired just like that.
I'm not going to go to a team that's losing. I think that would be disrespectful to me to trade me to somebody like that.
It's always going to have an effect when your father comes up and scolds you in front of a lot of people.
I'm not a jealous guy.
If you see yourself in the paper every day and people keep talking about you, you will have a little breakdown in yourself, too.
I've done did a lot of things in the NBA, made a lot of stuff, so I'm happy with what I've done.
I think if you ask any young guy if they would want a career like Gary Payton, they would tell you yes.
I'm not going to sit here and dwell on whether or not I am going to the Hall of Fame.
I am going to go on with my life, and if they call me and say 'Yo, you are going to be in the Hall of Fame or you are going to be in this,' then I am going to say, 'So be it.' If I make it, I will go to the ceremony, and I'll have fun.
I've got a lot of stats. I did a lot of stuff.
When I was playing, it was me playing both ends of the floor, playing offense, playing defense and I gave the ball up with assists. It wasn't like me doing one thing, scoring 25 and having three assists and one steal.
I was guarding the best player and getting 25 and having eight assists, and three-four steals.
Basketball has turned into an offensive-minded situation. They don't play on both ends. They don't play defense.
I've done everything - All-Stars, Olympics. The only thing I haven't done is win MVP of the league. There's nothing else I haven't accomplished.
The Glove is in the Hall of Fame with the greats.
My family played a big part of my success.
To Seattle, Washington, the SuperSonics organization and its fans, the best owners ever in the Ackerley family, I love you. But the best part is that you loved me back.
Gary Payton is evolving, but GP is in the Hall of Fame.
I don't need to be in New York. If you've had a bad game, they're booing you and all that mess.
I will not go to Oklahoma and retire my jersey there.
My dad was known as a mean guy. He never smiled, and he had 'Mr. Mean' put on his license plate. But he was one of the neighborhood dads who looked out for everyone. He would take kids in and help them out.
I got suspended from school once, and my dad came to the school and whooped me in front of everyone. I didn't want that to happen again, didn't want to be embarrassed like that. The guys that I ran with, they respected that and respected my dad too.
There was a lot of temptation to do lots of bad things in my neighborhood.
Assistants like Tim Grgurich worked with me and watched film of me from my Oregon State days.
What's the difference? Ninety million or 80 million. You still can't spend it all.
When I went in to Seattle, I had eight veterans who were in the league over six or seven years. That was a plus for me, to teach me how to respect somebody.
I didn't grow up admiring anybody but George Gervin, and I didn't get a chance to play against him. That would've been one of my lifetime accomplishments. I probably would've went crazy if I played against him, because he's like a father to me now.
I'm a big fan of Marcus Smart.
Prove to them people that you should have gotten picked earlier, and then you make your money. The privilege is just getting drafted, and once you get picked, prove to them that you were supposed to be drafted.
With Westbrook and myself, I can see the dog that he has in him. He's got that fire that he won't back down from anybody. His game is a little different than mine because he's a fast, get to the bucket type of player, finishing above the rim and things like that.