Sports Radio Interviews

Gary Payton Doing What He Does

Gary Payton has put down the glove and picked up the microphone.  I suppose it was a natural progression for a guy who would not stop yapping on the basketball court – a grade A trash talker.  He’s developed a fantastic chemistry providing analysis with Ahmad Rashad and Chris Webber on NBA TV.  He was an accomplished player so the transition to the desk seems to have been smooth from the viewer’s perspective.  He’s a colorful guy with an even more colorful wardrobe; being a larger-than-normal collar guy myself, I can appreciate GP’s bright, bold collars.  Gary Payton joined Fox Sports Radio to discuss how players take criticism, the Celtics shutting down Kevin Garnett and LeBron’s defensive capabilities compared to Kobe’s: 

On players handling his criticisms:

“When you tell the truth and it’s from me or it’s from a guy that’s like a Michael Jordan or myself, who have been in this type of situation before and they know that we’ve done it and that we were a great basketball player; some of these guys take the criticism in a great way.  They don’t take it in a negative way, they’ll be like, ‘Okay, Gary said that to me.  If he said something bad, then we will try to basically come back and upstage him and make him be wrong.”

On the Celtics shutting down Garnett:

“Right now they know that they can’t catch Cleveland.  I can understand if it was a tie and they could try to become the #1 seed, but right now they’re seeded.  Don’t get it worse where you won’t have him for the whole playoffs.”

Defense – LeBron versus Kobe:

“I think LeBron is a great defensive player, running down players, blocking the ball and not quitting on the play.  But, right now I’m still thinking that being a 1 on 1 defensive player, he’s not at that level right now, but I think he can become that basketball player.  Kobe plays the top player every time.  I don’t think too many guys are stepping up like that now.”

Listen to Gary Payton on Fox Sports Radio with JT the Brick

Tags: Boston Celtics, Broadcaster, Cleveland Cavaliers, Gary Payton, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, NBA