Payton’s Not the Only One With Issues

It’s appropriate that the Lakers came to this town, because the only group that has more agendas than this squad is Congress.

All of the noise is drowning out the original goal -- a championship -- and making it seem less likely by the minute. The Lakers are back to where they were in their last couple of seasons at the Forum, when myriad personal goals made your head hurt and sent the team spinning out of the playoffs every year. All you heard in 1999-2000 was championship, and they got one. Nowadays the Laker soundtrack is more like the Lil’ Kim song: “Money, power, respect.”

The topic at the forefront changes every day, like restaurant soup. Saturday, Gary Payton had the floor.

Driving an SUV through the door his agent opened with his comments in Saturday’s Times, Payton went on a 7 1/2-minute filibuster about his lack of playing time, his dislike of his role in the triangle offense and his desire to play for another team or coach next season.

Payton knew when he took a reduced annual salary of $4.9 million to join Karl Malone on Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s team that it would require some sacrifices.

“Not this type of sacrifice,” Payton said.

He understood that he would be “sacrificing points and touches. But when you end up sacrificing minutes and playing the role and trying to do other things, I’m not playing the way I think I should be played. I knew I was not going to be the leading scorer. I knew all that. This is Kobe and Shaq’s team. We knew they were going to score. I can take not scoring. I can score whatever, as long as we’re winning basketball games. But not me sitting on the bench -- and sitting there and don’t know the reason. I don’t know.”

Jackson keeps saying that he wants to keep Payton fresh for the playoffs, but Payton doesn’t want to hear that.

He sounded serious about leaving. There’s this to consider: Jackson’s contract is up after the season, so if Payton doesn’t like the way Jackson uses him, he might not have to go anywhere if the Lakers bring in a new coach.

“If that happens, then I’ll weigh myself coming back,” Payton said. “Right now I want to do more. I want to be on the floor a little bit more. I want to get more touches, more scores, more opportunities.

“That doesn’t mean I want to score 25, 30 points. That’s not going to happen. [I want] to get the opportunity to get in pick-and-rolls like other guards are putting us in pick-and-rolls and make them have to adjust.”

That’s the way Payton played for the first 13 years of his career, when he averaged 18 points and seven assists in 37 minutes a game. This season he is averaging 14.6 points and six assists in 33.6 minutes a night.

The Lakers didn’t expect opposing point guards to put up big numbers against him, either. But he’s been lighted up on a regular basis.

Payton blames that on: a) not being allowed to attack the other point guards on offense and wear them down; and b) having to sit while his opponent gets hot, then being expected to cool him down when he checks in. Thursday, for example, Payton checked in for the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, just long enough to watch the final two three-pointers of Mike Bibby’s 31-point night sail over his head.

If Payton has issues, he might as well get in line.

O’Neal wants to sign a contract extension that will pay him max cash and is mad that it hasn’t happened yet.

As frustrated as Payton is, he plays more than Derek Fisher, who sits more than half the game on most nights and is mulling whether to opt out of his contract after the season.

Then, of course, there’s Bryant. In addition to his sexual assault case, he has the ongoing battles with O’Neal and Jackson and his pending free agency.

“All these kids have egos,” Jackson said. “But I tell them I have one too.”

Individual agendas can lead to unity. O’Neal and Jackson both seek owner Jerry Buss’ money and favor, feeling like the shunted siblings while Buss fawns over Bryant. O’Neal keeps saying Jackson is the only man he wants to coach the team; he reaped one benefit Saturday when Jackson made excuses for why O’Neal grabbed only two rebounds in 34 minutes.

Bryant took Payton’s side Saturday, just because it meant he could fire another shot at Jackson:

“It was tough for all of us when we got into the situation ... but it’s not my decision to make,” Bryant said. “It’s not my team to run. It’s not Shaq’s team to run. It’s Phil’s. So, now it’s Phil’s turn to make the decision on what he wants to do accordingly.”

Payton sounded as if he wouldn’t even bother.

“I don’t want to ask [Jackson] to change his system,” he said. “If that’s the way he’s going to have to be, that’s the way he’s going to be. Then I’ll probably have to move on.”

It’s not impossible for good teams to overcome the petty bickering. During the Chicago Bulls’ heyday, one of Scottie Pippen’s postgame interview sessions consisted of his pointing at Michael Jordan’s field-goal attempts on the stat sheet.

But team cohesion can make good teams better. One of the hallmarks of last year’s San Antonio Spurs was the selflessness of the veteran players, from Tim Robinson to Steve Smith, ceding their places to the young guys.

Right now the Lakers are a good team that needs to get better. They have enough issues on the court, especially on the defensive end, without letting all of the interference break up the transmission. And, as one player indicated, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Malone said, “Is it going to be a little tougher than it should be? Yeah.

“But as long as the effort at the end is united, I definitely think we can.

“This is our job. I see guys starting to focus even more when they do show up on the court.”

Can this group that’s headed the way of the SS Minnow ever turn into the Good Ship Lollipop?

Jackson, through a couple of metaphors, indicated that it could.

“Regardless of the magnitude of the players and the egos that they have, there’s still room to fit it all in the umbrella of the basketball team,” Jackson said. “If winning is the ultimate objective, then players can all buckle into that.”

Better buckle up and get under the umbrella, because it’s raining hard.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.