GP respects Celtics, aims fury at Lakers
From the "Spoiled, Pampered, Jackass of an Athlete" Department comes the tale of Gary Payton. Any professional athlete knows that being traded is one of the risks of the business. It's not a pleasant aspect of the business, certainly, particularly if you have a family. Nonetheless, it is part and parcel of what being a professional athlete is.
If you've been around long enough or have a good agent, you'll have a no-trade clause in your contract. If not, you roll with the punches, because that's what you have to do take make the big bucks.
Of course, if you're Gary Payton, you think you're above the rules. You have for your entire career. Now, you've gone and demonstrated what a spoiled, pampered brat you really are.
WALTHAM, Mass. --- All Gary Payton wants is a little respect. And maybe to play for a team other than the Celtics.
After the Lakers traded Payton to Boston, the All-Star point guard was reportedly furious, didn't show up for his required physical with his new team and, on Sunday, told the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise that he will quit if facing entering the Celtics' training camp in October.
"I'll quit," Payton told the newspaper. "I can go on and do something else.
"I wasn't going to Boston to take a physical. I ain't going to move my family no more. I can't take my family to Boston."
Payton said he didn't have anything against the Celtics, but that he felt the Lakers had failed to honor their agreement with him when Payton exercised his one-year $5.4 million contract option to continue to play in Los Angeles.
"It's about respect," Payton told the Press-Enterprise. "[The Lakers] didn't respect me. Why should I respect them?
"They used me so they could get other players," Payton said, adding that "Boston is going to lose out on this. They ain't going to get nothing."
No, Gary, it's not personal, and it's not about respect. It never has been. It's business- it always has been and always will be. And as far as this crap about the Lakers "using" you goes...it sucks to have the tables turned, doesn't it? You would have "used" and deceived the Lakers in a New York minute if it would have made you a few million bucks, right? Of course you would have. So stop your whining already. You know the rules of the game, and you don't have a no-trade clause in your contract. Suck it up, stop being a DUMB@$$, and report to Boston. Or retire. I doubt anyone really cares. Lord knows I don't.
