Sam Perkins on Gary Payton: ‘He makes up words as he talks trash’

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This article, featuring content from Scoop B and Reg (a Little Engine Media production) was written by Landon Buford and originally appeared on celticswire.usatoday.com.

Former NBA star Gary Payton, the only point guard to win the Defensive Player of the Year award in league history, played for the Boston Celtics during the 2004-05 season. Despite being 36-years-old, that season he was active for 77 games and if you aren’t familiar with “The Glove,” he was running his mouth before, during and after each and every game.

Payton, along with the likes of Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley and Kevin Garnett (two of whom who are former Celtics) are known as some of the biggest trash talkers that NBA has ever seen.

A nine-time All-Star and nine-time All-Defensive team selection, Payton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. If there was a Hall of Fame for the greatest talkers, he would have made that elite club as well.

Size nor star power was ever a deterrent. There was an encounter with fellow Hall of Fame forward Scottie Pippen while the latter was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. Former Blazer point guard Damon Stoudamire chronicles the incident in The Player’s Tribune.

He’ll go at anyone. He’ll go at Scottie Pippen. One time you’ll be playing Gary in Portland, and he’ll be in Pippen’s ear.

“You ain’t nothin’ anymore, Scottie. Where’s Mike? Where’s Mike at? I ain’t scared of you now, Scottie.”

Mind you, Scottie will have six NBA titles at this point. Gary will have none. And he won’t care.

“Hey, Scottie! You know what, man? You ain’t top 50 of all time. You want me to show you my list? I had you at 51, Scottie. I had you at 51. I had Dominique ahead of you. You’re 51, Scottie.”

This is the level of trash talk you’re up against now. Don’t even open your mouth. If Gary’s going to do Scottie, like that, he’ll send you to therapy, said Stoudamire.

Payton’s former Seattle SuperSonics teammate Sam Perkins also knows about his former teammates maniacal on-court methods. A member of the 1984-85 All-Rookie team, Sam Perkins was recently a guest on the “Scoop B and Reg” Podcast:

“Gary is a funny guy because he talks trash but he makes up words as he talks trash,” Perkins says, as he segues into an anecdote about Payton’s trash-talking and what makes him a bigger trash-talker than NBA icon Michael Jordan.

“They fixed up the locker room and brought speakers in and stereo. They made up all the couches. And he comes in there and I guess he meant to say ‘surround sound’ but he called it ‘surround round.’

“I mean he just has a vocabulary and does not think before he speaks and we got on him all the time. So, we started saying ‘surround round’ everywhere we went, so he gets mad. He makes up vocabulary. He talks trash and I could not understand what he was saying on the court but the guys on the court seem like they can understand what he is saying. It’s not words that we can say in this room would say out loud. But Gary was different.”

During his career, Gary Payton averaged 16.3 points, 6.7 assists and 3.9 per game, winning a championship in 2005-06, just a season after his pit stop in Boston. In his brief time with the Celtics, Boston went 45-37 and reached the Eastern Conference Playoffs as the third-seed in the conference.

Payton averaged 11.3 points, 6.1 assists (a team-high) and 1.1 steals per game with the Celtics while shooting 46.8 percent from the field. He started all 77 games he played for Boston, finding himself playing alongside memorable Celtics like Paul Pierce, Tony Allen, Al Jefferson, Antoine Walker and Walter McCarty.

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Author: admin1