Gary Payton recently spoke about the Los Angeles Lakers super team that he was a part of.
The Los Angeles Lakers and NBA will have their hands full again with the Golden State Warriors this season. The league has spent the offseason quietly and publicly (C.J. McCollum comes to mind) resenting the Golden State Warriors for their “super team” after signing DeMarcus Cousins.
The Los Angeles Lakers took over the NBA world signing LeBron James almost immediately entering free agency. But the Golden State Warriors smoothly add more weapons to their cache of talent for the next season.
Which leads us to ask…
Should the NBA even suit up for the season? Should we just Fed-Ex the NBA title to Golden State and wonder if the MVP should be given to Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry?
Not so fast, Lake Show Lifers! If you remember, the Los Angeles Lakers had a squad on paper that could qualify as a “Super Team”. In fact, the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers can go on the record as being maybe the first franchise bringing in can’t miss players that could convince fans that the NBA Finals trophy would be back in La-La Land after a one-year hiatus.
After getting a 4-1 beat-down in the Finals (It should have been a sweep had Kobe Bryant not hit a 3-pointer half way to the locker room!), the Lakers also reminded everyone of the old sports adage…
“That’s why you play the games…”
After the San Antonio Spurs ended the Lakers three-peat by dismissing them in the second round of the playoffs, the Lakers doubled up on what the Warriors did this offseason by bringing in future Hall of Famers, Karl Malone and Gary Payton.
One Hall-of Famer? Maybe. But two? Now understand Karl Malone took a MASSIVE pay cut to play the season for the Lakers. (I think the term is famously known now as ring-chasing.) Gary Payton signed on after spending the end of the last season with the Bucks after a falling out with Seattle.
The Bucks wanted to re-sign Payton to a long-term deal but failed. Kind of reminds you of some player in Toronto, huh? Then, the Lakers re-signed Horace Grant and the Lakers were on their way.
Only a couple of things crept up (Saying it mildly) that derailed the Lakers championship run and experiment after only one year.
Gary Payton was on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” with his take on what went wrong…
"“The big reason was Karl Malone got hurt. We were [18-3] and everybody was talking about we were going to get the Bulls’ record and stuff like that. But then people don’t get it. We had a kid, Kobe Bryant, he was a kid. He had just got into trouble. He had a mindset of, ‘I think I’m going to jail. I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ He was going back and forth to Denver, we didn’t have him a lot. Then all of a sudden, Shaq and the organization was having problems.”"
Gary Payton is right in a sense. Karl Malone’s knee issues were a major issue. When Malone was healthy, the Lakers were almost unbeatable. Malone was the ultimate team player, being the glue guy playing tough defense and rebounding the ball setting up the Lakers fast break.
He also was the guy on the team that was the last bit of resistance to the infamous Kobe/Shaq feud.
By the 2004 season rolled around, the two had gone WAAAAAAY past the point of reconciliation. Both players criticized the other over their leadership roles on the team (also read…Who’s team it is.)
Shaq never acknowledged him by name in the media gatherings and press conferences along with the passive-aggressive attitude of placing him in “Little Brother” status. Kobe, on the other hand, had issues with Shaq lobbying for contract extensions in public and more importantly not reaching out to him when his off-season drama in Colorado started.
Payton delved deeper into the injuries the team dealt with…research shows that Gary’s numbers were a little off. But hey, it’s 2018…
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"“Karl Malone missed [40] games, Shaquille O’Neal missed [15] and then we had Kobe who missed [17]. I’m the only guy there who plays the whole 82, and we’ve got a group of guys coming off the bench who didn’t know who they were. We had Fisher, we had Fox, we had Horace Grant, and we put it together. So when we put it together and got to the playoffs, we made a run. San Antonio was the [No.3] team in the league that year; we beat them in [six] games. And then we got to the Finals and everything didn’t click after that. Karl tried to come back, blew up the knee, and then Kobe and everybody went on their own thing. We let a good team in Detroit, who was rolling at the time, beat us 4-1.”"
Look, I love Gary Payton. If you look at my bio picture below, his jersey is over my left shoulder. I watch Ice Cube’s Big 3 to watch him coach (Play Mahmoud Abdul Rauf more Gary…just a suggestion!)
That being said, he conveniently left out that he was absolutely TERRIBLE in the triangle offense. Payton was a ball dominant point guard who loved to post up. The triangle took most, if not all of those opportunities away. He is right about the injuries, though. With all of the issues that were mentioned above, O’Neal, Bryant, Payton and Malone would only play 20 games.
Even with all of the drama (and there was a ton!), the Lakers still finished 56-26. The accounted for second in the Western Conference behind the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The aftermath in the offseason was as ugly as the Finals.
The Los Angeles Lakers decided not to extend Phil Jackson‘s contract which showed him the door.
Shaquille O’Neal demanded a trade and was sent to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal which brought back numerous players. One of those players was Lamar Odom, who helped the Lakers win a couple more titles. Shaquille went on to win another championship two years later.
Kobe Bryant signed a huge extension to effectively end the Kobe/Shaq feud (on the team anyway.) He went on to win two championships, which effectively ended the myth that Bryant needed Shaq to win the three they won together earlier that decade.
Gary Payton and Rick Fox were traded to the Boston Celtics. Rick Fox retired and never suited up. He went Hollywood for real and became a full-time actor. Gary Payton eventually teamed up with Shaq in Miami and won his title playing with Dwyane Wade.
Karl Malone decided not to resign and eventually retired.
Derek Fisher left for the Golden State Warriors. He then played in Utah before coming back to the Lakers and winning two more championships with Kobe Bryant and another sidekick…Pau Gasol.
So what have we learned in this cautionary tale?
If you combine injuries, drama and a Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant beef over who won the MVP in the Finals last year, the NBA has a chance.