Hall of Fame honours for Gary Payton

Former NBA point guard and nine-time All-Star Gary “The Glove” Payton was inducted into the Hall of Fame on September 8th, 2013. The other new Hall of Famers include legendary college coach Rick Pitino and Bernard King among others. A total of 12 former players, coaches and contributors were inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Gary Payton on his Hall of Fame induction:

As players, we dream of this moment, but don’t expect to be here. But I really liked my chances of getting here.

Payton spent 17 seasons (1990-2007) in the NBA, playing for Seattle Supersonics (with whom he spent 13 years, 1990-2003), Bucks, Lakers, Celtics and Miami Heat. Payton won a championship with the Heat in 2006. He was the NBA Defensive player of the year in 1996 and is the only point guard to have ever won this award. He was an Olympic Gold medal winner and part of the original ‘Dream Team’ of 1996 and 2000. He ended his career with 16.3 PPG, 6.7 APG and 1.8 SPG. He’s ranked 4th all-time in steals and 8th all-time in assists. Payton is considered to be one of the greatest point guards of all time and certainly the most complete player at that position.

He formed an extremely successful partnership with Shawn “Reign Man” Kemp and together, they led the Sonics to a franchise record of 64 wins and an NBA finals against Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1995-96. Payton was also the NBA leader in steals during 1995-96. Although they lost to the Bulls, 4-2 in the Finals, he defended Jordan extremely well and trash talked so much that Jordan himself got angry at The Glove. Payton, however, considers John Stockton (who co-presented his Hall of Fame induction) as the hardest player he ever had to go up against.

Here are Payton’s top 10 plays of his career:

Payton was notably famous for his defensive ability (he was a nine-time NBA All defensive first team player and also earned the nickname “The Glove”), his trash talking and his knack of finding the passing lanes. GP was probably the greatest, most relentless trash talking player in the history of the game. Love him or hate him, you just couldn’t ignore him both on and off the court.

Payton seems to have mellowed down a bit these days. He was more humble and introspective on the podium than he has ever been in his long career on the court. That’s not to say that his trash talking days are completely behind him. No sir; he still calls himself “The Greatest Trash Talker of all time”. He also managed to give us a few glimpses of his younger, trash talking self. He did, however, sort-of apologise for his trash talk back in the day. He said that he did not regret anything he ever spoke and that it was not his intention to hurt anybody.

It was all for my crazy love for the game and my lack of maturity to express my passion any other way. I don’t regret the way I went about it. I can’t help but think I could have given more to the game that gave so much to me.

He thanked his family members, God, his friends, his fans, his former coaches, his physical trainer, the Miami Heat management and the Nike company (which, according to him, is the greatest brand in the world) for enabling him to win a championship, and everybody else who helped him get where he is now. He thanked his presenters John Stockton and George Gervin (who was also his childhood hero).

Payton ended his speech with:

My career is complete. Gary Payton is evolving, but GP is in the Hall of Fame.

The Glove’s Hall of fame speech: