Gary “The Glove” Payton Gets Inducted Into The Hall

On the eve of the opening day of the NFL, the national Basketball Association had its hall of fame ceremony, among those going into the Hall is Seattle Super Sonics point guard Gary “the glove” Payton. Payton finish a great career, a career that recorded him 20,000 points and 8,000 assist, he also added 5,000 rebounds and 2,000 steals. That is a remarkable line; in fact Payton is the only NBA player to put up those kinds of numbers in 4 different categories.

The glove was a tenacious defender and was known for getting under the skin of the opponent with his defense and mainly with his trash talking. The Glove ended his career getting a ring with the Miami Heat, but will forever be known for his time in Seattle.

The Sonics where most of his assist were lobs to the high flying Shawn Kemp, Payton also found himself in battles with the greats of the 90’s but was not able to lift his Sonic teams to a NBA title.

As Payton gave his thanks to all those that got him to this point, he did not hesitate to do what he was always known for and that talking trash. Payton told of his battles with the Bulls and Michael Jordon and Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson. As he spoke I could remember those battles watching “The Glove” on television do his thing, brought back memories of hoping someone would knock off the Bulls in the finals.

I think this was a slam dunk inductee, and has gone down in NBA history as one of the most complete point guards to play the game.