Gary, Got A Minute, Or 53?
Late in the first quarter of the most important game of the year, Sonic Coach George Karl had a rather large favor to ask of his all-star point guard. Quite simply, Karl asked Gary Payton if he wouldn’t mind playing all 48 minutes of Game 4.
Karl asked him to chase Kevin Johnson and Jason Kidd and Rex Chapman for every minute of this must-win game. Asked him to run the offense. Get the ball to the right hands. And hit the big shots in this hothouse that is America West Arena.
No big deal. Just run every fast break. Make every defensive switch. Recognize every double team. Deliver every necessary pass.
No sweat. Just do it.
But Payton didn’t play 48 minutes in Thursday night’s season-saving 122-115 victory over the Suns. He played 53 minutes.
He made every trip upcourt. Took every elbow. Suffered every floor burn. And never stopped running.
He scored a game-high 28 points. Delivered 14 assists and had seven rebounds. Made two steals.
In the overtime, he drove past his close friend Jason Kidd, spun to the basket and scored the field goal that gave his team the lead for good, 114-112, with 1:52 left.
On this night, he was Muhammad Ali pulling himself off the stool round after round against Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila. He was Pete Sampras serving aces in the fifth set in the swelter of the U.S. Open.
“The guy didn’t tire out,” Sam Perkins said. “You go head-to-head with two of the best guards in the league. I mean, Gary’s a handful. When he gets into the flow, he’s hard to contain. He’s so uncanny with the ball.”
In this mercurial season, Payton has been the Sonics’ only constant. On a team that has been as shaky as a tectonic plate, Payton has been steady as a sextant. You name it and he’s done it.
From Philadelphia to Portland. From November to May. Payton has delivered.
There have been times this season when the heart of this team has been questioned. Nobody, however, questioned the heart of Gary Payton.
If you wondered whether he might relax after signing his $87.5 million contract last summer, you don’t know him very well.
If you thought he might run out of gas after playing almost nonstop through the 1996 NBA Finals and the Olympics and another grueling season, you grossly underestimated his will.
Nobody was hurt more by Nate McMillan’s injuries than Payton. With McMillan out, he had to handle the ball more. He had to play with different guards and unorthodox sets.
He got frustrated, but he never complained.
“The guy’s an ironman,” David Wingate said. “He’s phenomenal. We look for him to do everything for us. Rebound. Shoot. To bring the ball up. Everything.
“Gary’s a special player. There’s not many people who can go 48, then overtime, and still perform at the level he did. He carried us all season when we weren’t stepping up and he’s carrying us now.”
The smart point guards make adjustments in a playoff series. They find the weaknesses of a defense and they exploit them.
In the Game 3 loss, the rest of the Sonics stood around while Payton drained eight threes and scored 34 points.
He didn’t let that happen in Game 4. He got Hersey Hawkins a couple of early threes and he got Detlef Schrempf more involved. He drove into the Suns’ midsection, then kicked the ball out for open jumpers. He ran the team the way Magic Johnson used to run the Lakers. He gave it everything it needed.
“We needed a great game from him and Gary delivered,” Schrempf said. “He’s got a tough job because they’re running different guys at him and they’re playing different defenses on pick-and-rolls, and he did a great job reading it. He did a great job of picking his spots and passing to his teammates.”
Payton was relentless. In the overtime, when Johnson and Kidd were running on empty, Payton looked ready to run into Friday morning.
“We had our backs to the wall and the coach told me, ‘Hey, can you play all the minutes?’ And I told him I could,” Payton said. “That’s what happened. I just had to dig deep down and go at it.
“I think it was in his mind that I had to play all the game and, hey, I had nothing else to lose and I did it. This is the end of the season. This is when the clutch players are supposed to come out. If the coach expects me to play these many minutes, then I’ll play these many minutes.”
And if Karl asks him tomorrow to go another 48 or beyond in Game 5? “I’m ready,” Payton said. “I’m there.”
Is there any doubt?