The Gloves Come Off

What Phil Jackson is saving Gary Payton for is not entirely clear, but after another 30-minute game Thursday night, this time in a two-point loss to the Sacramento Kings, Payton spent an hour venting to his agent, then called him again Friday morning.

Payton told Aaron Goodwin he longed to play his trademark aggressive game, but that in 56 games as a Laker he’d been boxed in by Jackson’s rigid system, shortened playing time and the organization’s unalterable reliance on Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

With less than two months left in the regular season, Payton and Goodwin feel the Lakers have not gotten what they expected from Payton, primarily because of games like Thursday’s when he played less than six minutes in the fourth quarter and had only a minor role on offense when he was in the lineup.

Goodwin said Friday there are moments when Payton “regrets” his decision to sign last summer with the Lakers, an organization Payton believed would adjust as much to his game as he would to it. Instead, Goodwin said, Payton has become a cog in the system, unable to affect games for long periods, if at all.

The Lakers were traveling Friday -- they play the Washington Wizards today -- and team officials, including Jackson, were unavailable for comment. So, too, was Payton. But recently, Payton smiled crookedly and referred to his season in Los Angeles as “an adventure,” leaving it at that.

“That’s just a point guard out there,” Goodwin said. “That’s not Gary Payton. Phil could use the old Gary Payton. It’s frustrating, because he sacrificed to come to the Lakers.... At the end of the day, we’ve got to get together on this. The commitment that was made to Gary is not being fulfilled.

“Anybody who thinks Gary, at 35, has become an average point guard, they’re wrong.... He’s not being allowed to play his way and I know it hurts.”

Jackson’s habit is to bench Payton to start the second and fourth quarters, as he has several other starters. Early in the season, when the Lakers were healthy and winning with ease, Payton occasionally sat for most or all of the fourth quarter, even as he hoped for the minutes to learn the triangle offense.

Jackson and Payton had several conversations about Payton’s desire for more minutes and they’d reached an uneasy understanding about saving Payton for the playoffs.

Payton’s playing time and impact spiked with the injuries to Karl Malone, O’Neal and, in particular, Bryant. But Bryant has returned and retaken much of the offense, and Thursday night, in arguably the Lakers’ most important game to date, Payton was on the bench as Laker reserves turned a one-point lead into a six-point deficit.

In the first nine minutes of the first quarter against the Kings, Payton made three of six shots for six points and took three rebounds. For the rest of the game, playing mostly in five-minutes bursts, he took four shots, missing three. He did not score in the second half, when he took three shots to Bryant’s 17.

On Wednesday night in Denver, in the Laker possession that ended with Kareem Rush’s game-winning three-pointer, Payton was so surprised Bryant gave up the ball that a pass nearly hit him in the face.

Jackson said he has asked Bryant to leave the ball in Payton’s hands, to allow Payton to activate the offense, which occasionally happens.

In the meantime, Jackson said recently, “He’s been the steady performer for us all season long.... Early on, he had some complaints about playing time. I wanted to save him. We kind of reached an agreement. That was no struggle at all.”

Goodwin and General Manager Mitch Kupchak spoke Friday and addressed the issue of Payton’s playing time. Payton might soon be at Jackson’s door again.

When Payton became a Laker, Goodwin said, he intended to defer to O’Neal and Bryant. He did not intend to surrender, however, and now he feels helpless as the Lakers push toward what they hope is a better playoff seeding.

“He’s not happy,” Goodwin said. “To be quite honest, he’s tired of it. If they’re not listening, it’s crazy. All L.A. has seen is a shell of Gary Payton. He’s gone out of his way to defer, and he’s getting nothing back from Phil....

“He was told he could come in there and be Gary Payton, not be some point guard in the triangle offense.... I would like for them to allow Gary Payton, for at least the last few games, to be Gary Payton.”