NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton appeared on CBS Sports Radio's "Tiki and Tierney" on Thursday and discussed the firestorm that is surrounding his former Seattle SuperSonics coach, George Karl. Despite the fact that the first blurb on the back of Karl's book, "Furious George," belongs to Payton, he said he disagreed with the way Karl wrote about Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin not having fathers.
"When you go and start talking about people's families and how they were raised, I don't agree with George with that," Payton said on CBS Sports Radio's Tiki and Tierney. "I disagree with him on all of that. When you say somebody doesn't have a father figure, it's a lot of kids out there that don't have a father figure, and I hate that. I grew up around a lot of my childhood friends that didn't have a father figure and my father was their figure, so (George) can't say that. If his father wasn't there, then I think George should have came in and approached them and said 'I see the problem. Let me help you.' Don't come out years later and try to downgrade them about anything. You wasn't saying that when you were there."
"When he was with Carmelo in Denver, he should have been helping him instead of (coming) out with a book and trying to downgrade him right now," Payton continued. "A lot of kids don't have father figures, and I think Carmelo and the guys and Kenyon grew up and they did well to get in the NBA and did what they do. I respect them because I've seen this a lot. That was just really wrong. George should have never took himself to that level. Because he had a father figure, that doesn't downgrade nobody else that didn't have a father figure. You should help these kids and become a father figure - and that's what he did for me. That's why I didn't get it. I don't get why he did that because I think I was worse than Carmelo and Kenyon because I usually cuss him out every day. But he shouldn't (criticize) two guys (without fathers)."
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"Me and him bumped heads at first," Payton said. "George is a person where, at first, he's hard to get along with, but you have to get along with him. But if you do get along with him, he's going to deal with you. He's going to let you do whatever you need to do. But we were rocky at first. I went back at him; he went back at me. But then he became that father figure for me. I spent seven or eight years with him, and he improved my game to another level. I was struggling in the NBA until he came, and then I started making All-Stars, I started doing better, I started working out in the summers."
Payton went on to say that "it's all going to be negative for George right now" and "a lot of these people in the NBA are going to take this very personal." That certainly seems accurate, and the craziest part of this is that Karl apparently didn't see any of this backlash coming. When the players who like and support you are saying that you're out of line, then you're probably out of line.
