Gary Payton is an NBA legend who had a long and storied career spanning several decades.
As such, he has some great stories.
This past week, Payton appeared on Kenyon Martin’s “Neat & Unfiltered podcast and talked about a bevy of topics.
One particularly interesting subject of conversation? Payton revealing which NBA coach he absolutely wanted to kill.
Apparently, when he was with the Seattle SuperSonics, he absolutely despised George Karl. Martin could relate to this, because he hated Karl when the two were both members of the Denver Nuggets.
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“I used to want to kill George’s a– every other f—ing day,” Payton said.
“I wanted to beat his head in, you know what I’m saying? But it was [assistant coach Tim] Grgurich who (talked me down).
“You got to understand, Grgurich came from (coaching) guys like that at UNLV, so he knew how to get with us. He always went and recruited guys like ourselves, coming from neighborhoods (like we grew up in), where he knew we just needed to be let loose.
“Don’t put all that boundaries on us. Man, let us get loose, let us do what we got to do! And that’s why we all love him to death because he knew what we needed. I get it because some nights on them teams, you’re gonna to want to kill somebody, you’re gonna want to kill somebody.”
Karl is currently one of only nine coaches in NBA history to win more than 1,000 games, but obviously he had a tendency of rubbing guys the wrong way.
As for Payton, he always keeps it real. Whether he is describing why veterans used to hate Kobe Bryant or putting Michael Jordan in his place, blunt honesty comes standard in any interview he does.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
