Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Gary Payton - Page 2

Wilt Chamberlain, by far, is my best basketball player. Best athlete ever.

I would never have wanted to play with Magic Johnson, I would never have wanted to play with Michael Jordan, I would never have wanted to play with Karl Malone or John Stockton in my prime. We wanted to play against the Shaqs, the Kobes.

The NBA tries to be about flash. But real fans recognize the guy who makes things happen.

I don't give a damn about MVP.

My father and my brother are chefs.

LeBron is making a case for himself to be one of the greatest players to ever play.

I hope they'll say I was one of the hardest-working basketball players on both ends of the floor.

The point guards that I like are the ones that are playing like point guards.

You don't just come in and say, 'Bam, I'm mature; I'm the leader.' It took time for me to grow into this and learn how to talk to certain players and how to handle certain situations.

When I made it to the pros I wanted to be a guy who could stay in the league, be OK, do whatever I had to do to make some money and do what I do. As the years started coming, I started getting better.

I'm not a practice player.

Because of how I am on the court, people think I'm wild and crazy. But really, I'm a kick-back guy, so Seattle suits me fine.

When I was talking a lot of trash, a lot of the guys knew that when I started getting serious was when I started getting a little bit quieter. If I started locking up somebody, then I'd start talking even more and I'd talk more aggressive. But once I stopped, they knew I was really serious.

I did a lot of things I regret.

When you play defense what happens is everybody pays attention and they start talking about how you're the stopper, you can stop this guy. All of a sudden your game gets better on the offensive end and you become that versatile guard that everybody wants.

I don't miss basketball because I've already got in my mind that I did what I had to do for 17 years. I think I'm satisfied with what I did.

I'm always going to admire my father more than anybody in life.

You talk about rowdy - in Oakland the players were on you. The refs were on you. The stands were on you. You had to talk back or you were a sissy; you'd get run out of the league. Afterward? Yeah, it was kind of a, uh, struggle to get out of the gym. Cops had to be everywhere. Which was lucky.

There's a lot of things that I appreciate that people can't appreciate.

I can't think ok, I got 35 points, he got 35, I did something good.

I've loved my days at Oregon State.

Tim Hardaway was a guy who had his crossover and then he could shoot a jump shot and he could get to the bucket.

Larry Bird was a talker. He'd tell you something and you'd be like, are you kidding me? You're really telling me that?

Coaching is something I really would do. A lot of people don't think I'm serious about it. I like working with the kids. When you work with the guys one-on-one and get them to understand it's a little bit better. That's the way I was taught by Tim Grgurich. That's how he taught us.

I own 60 retro jerseys. I've got everybody - the late Derrick Thomas, a lot of people.

If he's averaging 25 points and I can contain him to 17, then I've won the battle. If he averages 12 assists and I kept him to seven, I'm winning the game.

The trash-talking, I think I would like to take that back. I really didn't want to get known as that, but that was just the way I was, the way I grew up back in Oakland, Calif., back on the playgrounds.

I like comfortable clothes, so I get most of my pants and shirts made.

You've got to be on all-league teams before you can say that you are going to be a great basketball player.

I like Draymond Green's intensity... but every time I didn't get a call I didn't cry all the time.

To let somebody get 30 points on you, and you feel good because you got 35 on them, that's not good for me, you know what I'm saying? If I get 35, I want him to get 12 or 14 because that means I've done something. I've done my job. I went out there and played hard and did what I had to do.

You don't have to like me, but I'm going to tell you the truth. If you don't like what I'm saying, then go out and prove it.

Part of being a leader means knowing who you can go after and who you should pat on the butt.

I know who can play and who can't play and I'm very straight-forward... If you can play, you can play; if you can't, you can't.

The thing that I regret is not having better relationships with a lot of people. Being the hard-nosed guy that I was, I think I could've come off a little bit better in my relationships with a lot of people, and I didn't.

If Seattle could put my jersey on top of the Space Needle, they would.

Coming from Oakland, Calif., I never thought I'd be a Hall of Famer. I wasn't thinking about basketball like that.

I was really excited about going to Miami because of coach Riley. And getting with him has been a change for me and really good for me.

I'm not into the European-style clothes.

It is much easier to be the hunter than the hunted. When you are the one not expected to do anything, you play better.

Way to rock lil' homie. Much Love.

Not being able to rebound better was a thorn in our foot.

My oldest brother and my middle brother would always beat me up and take the ball from me. I used to cry a lot, so I used to come in here and get my dad. He used to be on my team, so he used to hold them down and let me score the basket.