On the eve of Hall of Fame induction, Payton still rues Seattle end

Published Saturday, Sep 7, 2013 at 5:58 pm EDT
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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. --- For Gary Payton, on the eve of his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame here, there is still bittersweet air about the whole deal.

His career is being honored, a dream is being fulfilled, but it is happening while the franchise for whom he remains an icon is defunct, even after his beloved Sonics came so close to returning to the NBA when a group in Seattle had an agreement to buy the Kings in place this winter.

Gary Payton headlines this year's Basketball Hall of Fame class. (AP photo)

Payton played in the NBA for 17 seasons for five teams, including the Bucks, Celtics, Lakers and Heat. But it is, of course, the 13 years he spent with the Sonics that define his professional life. And having Seattle without an NBA team since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 remains a sore spot for Payton.

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"This will smooth a little bit off of it," Payton said. "A lot of Seattle fans traveled up here, I am seeing a lot of stuff on Twitter and Instagram and all that stuff. It has really helped me. And then people had the galls to ask me what I am going to in as. I said, 'Really? You got the galls to ask me that?' Like I would go in as a Laker? How many All-Stars did I make as a Laker? You see me, 13 years, playing for them Seattle Supersonics. You didn't see nothing else, you just seen that Sonic on my jersey. So it is really gratifying for Seattle. I can't disrespect that."

Especially troubling is that, in hindsight, if there is any reason that the Sonics are no longer in existence, it stems from Payton himself.

For much of his career with Seattle, even with a sometimes dysfunctional front office and heated battles with coach George Karl, Payton was accustomed to a warm relationship with the Ackerley family, which owned the team. That was the case until 2001, when Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz bought the Sonics from the Ackerleys.

"When the Ackerleys sold the team, it went from being a family team to being a business then," Payton said. "The people who took over the team ran their team like a business, like how they made their money. And you can't do that. The Ackerleys ran the team like a family. When we had problems, they would call us in and talk to us. They would call us in and ask us, 'What's the problem?' Not try to trade you, not act like, 'No, you don't need a new contract.' They would work it out. They would call you and say let's work it out this summer, come to my home in the summer, we will go on a trip together, let's work things out."

Schultz, though, had immediate disdain for Payton, who was in the final year of his contract and wanted an extension-Shcultz saw him as demanding and self-involved. Schultz didn't like Payton or his representatives, and the problem was exacerbated when Payton held out in training camp of 2002. It was then that Schultz decided he would trade Payton, which he finally did in February 2003, sending him to Milwaukee in a deal headlined by Ray Allen.

That, Payton said, was the beginning of the end of the Sonics in Seattle. "[Schultz] did a lot of moves that wasn't the best moves," Payton said. "He made a lot of silly moves and those silly moves, first, was getting rid of me. I wasn't asking for a lot. I didn't never ask for a contract, I played all my contracts out. I was in the last year of the deal. All I asked was, are we going to get an extension? He made it seem like, 'I don't care about you no more, you're nothing.' That's what happened. He seen that wasn't the right way. Then the team and the whole franchise went downhill from there."

Schultz made plenty of other gaffes as an NBA owner, and the fact that the Sonics could not get a new arena deal helped pave the way for him to sell the team just five years after he bought it. It started with his treatment of Payton, and even now, just ahead of one of the most significant nights of his basketball life, Payton still remembers that ill-fated trade.

"It was time to go," Payton said. "I didn't want to be working for this guy. He knew it and I knew it. He made the move and he had the consequences. But, the consequences came and he messed that franchise up."