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Home > Gary Payton Articles > Sports Media: Payton's role as TV analyst is fun for him and his viewers
By Gary Washburn
seattlepi.com, November 6, 2008
WITH HIS INFECTIOUS personality and a smile that still reflects years when Sonics basketball mattered, Gary Payton was back on the NBA scene this week, part of NBA TV's pre- and postgame coverage from studios in Atlanta.
Payton is very much himself on the air, donning a Barack Obama T-shirt Tuesday before the election results were announced, using his brutal honesty to describe players and teams. Payton is back -- in a different way.
Seattleites would love for him and Shawn Kemp to jump into a time machine, land on the night of June 2, 1996, after the Sonics' 90-86 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals at KeyArena, and take a couple of extra deep breaths so they could have been better prepared for the Chicago Bulls in the Finals.
Maybe the Sonics could have won the championship and maybe basketball would still be here. But for now, all we have to hold onto are memories with Payton leading the charge. He is leading again, this time on a TV set in a new career -- and he is having just as much fun.
Payton, along with former NBA standouts Chris Webber, Eric Snow and Steve Smith, are analysts on "NBA Gametime," joining Ahmad Rashad and Andre Aldridge.
"You have a fun group that you are with and you talking about something I know," Payton said this week. "I know basketball and it's really nothing for me to critique players. People can't say, 'How can he speak on something? He hasn't done anything.' They know I have."
Through a 17-year career that ended with an NBA title with the Miami Heat, Payton scored 21,813 points and dished out 8,966 assists, seventh all-time. He pondered continuing his career after averaging a career-low 5.3 points per game in 2006-07, but instead he took the year off, traveled and dabbled in television with "The Best Damn Sports Show Period."
"When I took the year off to do nothing last year, I basically wanted to get my mind straight and (figure out) if I wanted to stop playing basketball and get it out of my mind, but I didn't want to stop being affiliated with that sport," he said. "When I was thinking about it, my major was in broadcast communications. I like to talk. I like to speak. I said I'm not really ready to coach right now. It would be almost like going back to play basketball. But I got this opportunity and I can be here two or three days during the week. I'm loving it right now."
While Snow appears stiff on the air and Smith is smooth and polite, Payton says exactly what is on his mind without a filter, making for funny and informative moments.
"This is TV. TV is ratings and with me, I'm just truthful," he said. "I don't care about the ratings but I care about people watching us and seeing the truth. It's just like Charles Barkley, he tells the truth. I am going to tell the truth. C'mon now if we have a Joe Kleine in here and he is making $17 million or $18 million playing basketball, I'm going to have to let you know (he's bad). This is something I want to do and something I have a passion for."
Perhaps some Seattle basketball observers thought Payton was being rather optimistic when he predicted basketball would return to Seattle by 2011. But five days later, Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis revealed to the Seattle P-I a plan to divert taxes for a KeyArena remodel that could speed up the process.
"I still think they're going to have a team," Payton said. "I got a lot of confidence that Seattle will get another chance. I'm not even concerned about it. I think the fans are concerned because they don't get up and get to go to basketball games and that is a hard feeling. It's too much of a great city for the NBA not having a team back there."
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