The Self-Transcendence of Gary Payton: A Will to Win

SEATTLE - Last night while watching the Seattle Supersonics play a summer league game against the the Portland Trailblazers I couldn't help but notice Jeff Green tightrope walk the sideline, running full speed, keeping the ball in play. I don't even remember what the result of the play was, I'll watch it again on DVR, and it doesn't really matter.

Last night while watching the Seattle Supersonics play a summer league game against the the Portland Trailblazers I couldn't help but notice Kevin Durant jab step and hit a twenty-footer effortlessly. I'll watch it again on DVR.
It isn't too often that you get to see a generational shift in a sport, but that's where I was last night. While watching young players do things at their size and age that shouldn't really happen I just accepted it, drink the kool-aid everybody, just drink it.

There was a timeout, both Durant (who I will just call Kevin from here on out) and Green, were walking off the floor, and I couldn't help but think that those two kids need a herdsman, a chaperone, a guide for the eventual ego trip this will be a component in their future. Good kids, or not, they are entering a man's world, a millionaire athlete's world. If only there was somebody that had been down that path, at that level, that had done the right things, the wrong things, and now knows the difference.
As if somebody had fed me moldy rye bread Gary Payton appeared on my television. GP was talking and all I could think was that he's matured. He said something about Green having good defensive footwork and that "he (Green) could guard anybody", that he didn't want to coach, he's thinking about playing one more year, that he'd like to work in a front office job somewhere, that he would like be back in Seattle. I'll watch it again on DVR.

I would like nothing more than to have the guy that was on television last night, the mature Gary Payton, keeping the kids out of trouble on the road. Gary knows what trouble looks like and I think he's at a point in his life where he could help other's avoid it. It would be good to have a guy that could step out on the floor once in a while to coach the kids out of a complete meltdown, when a veteran team turns the refs against the kids, when things don't go their way, when somebody has to have the ability to change the nature of the behavior of the players and refs on the floor, what's the right way to play the game, and not get screwed. I think Gary would be great not getting screwed insurance for the kids.
Gary doesn't have to start, or play a lot, but he appears to want to be wanted, to close the circle, and give something back. I'm all for that guy I saw last night.

There is one thing Gary could do that wasn't something you could measure in individual plays, but it appeared in the wins the not-so-good Sonics of the Vin Baker era. The Sonics had no business beating the Lakers as often as they did. The Sonics had no business beating Golden State consistently as they did. There was a point in a game, any game, where you could feel the intensity rise, and all of the Sonics players connected to it, next thing you know the defense clamps down and the best shot the Sonics could produce was taken, playing the right way. Not too many players have a will to win that extends beyond their personal desire, that transcends the physical abilities of normally ordinary role players that were on the floor at the time. If Gary could pass that gift on to the next generation of Sonics players then I think we could all be the better for it; second overall to second overall, from a guy that could guard anybody (the last point guard to be defensive player of the year) to another guy that can guard anybody.

I asked back in May to bring back the winner, sign Gary Payton for his last year. I didn't know that Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis would both be gone, I thought that they would sit on Ray for another year.
It will be come abundantly clear in the middle of the season, on the road, that you should have signed a veteran, the difference between any veteran and Gary, is that Gary cares what happens after his playing days are over, he cares about Seattle, it transcends.