Payton Doesn’t Earn Hall Status

All season we’ve heard about the four future Hall of Famers playing for the Lakers this season.

Shaquille O’Neal? Sure, he’ll be in. Karl Malone? A lock. Kobe Bryant? Most likely, as long as his career isn’t interrupted by a prison sentence.

What has been confusing is the fourth one.

Horace Grant? Sure, he has been part of four championships, but mostly as a role player. No matter how valuable, role players usually don’t make the Hall of Fame.

Rick Fox? Only if movie credits and an actress wife help. Of course, if you saw some of Rick’s movies....

Derek Fisher? Nah.

Slava.... Now this is getting ridiculous.

Gary Payton? Could he be the one they have been talking about? No way.

Sure, he has been a perennial all-league defender, but Michael Cooper was too, and he’s not getting in. Bobby Jones as well. And they won NBA championships. Payton probably is associated most with a big mouth and losses.

His 1994 Seattle SuperSonics won a league-high 63 games and did the biggest playoff swan dive in history with a first-round loss to bottom-seeded Denver.

OK, Payton got to the Finals with the Sonics in 1996, but this big-time defender didn’t even guard Michael Jordan until late in Game 3 when Seattle was about to go down, 3-0.

Grant knows Payton. When he played with him in 1999-2000, he suffered a serious shoulder injury trying to break up a fight between Payton and Vernon Maxwell when they were hurling large objects at one another.

Payton practically had to be wrestled to the ground by his agent, Aaron Goodwin, during a game once when he was screaming insults at his coach, Paul Westphal.

His feuds with management were legendary in Seattle and got him traded with a good riddance despite nine All-Star appearances.

This is a future Hall of Famer? No way.

Payton is more likely the biggest reason the Lakers are in big trouble against the San Antonio Spurs.

Forget the Spurs’ 17-game winning streak and the fact they haven’t lost a game for 43 days ... although it’s difficult to ignore.

Sure, O’Neal doesn’t seem quite the dominant figure he once was, and Malone is showing some age and wear.

But Payton has been a selfish loser most of his career, and that’s what he’s bringing to the Lakers more than All-Star and Olympic experience.

His refusal to adhere to the team offense while complaining about it only exacerbates the decline in his talent.

Payton sacrificed nothing to join the Lakers; no one was offering him more than the $5 million they’re paying him. He was brought in to provide defense on the point against players like Tony Parker.

Parker was terrific in Game 1, putting the Lakers in jeopardy by beating Payton repeatedly off the dribble and compromising the Lakers’ defense. He followed that up with 30 points in Game 2.

By my count, Phil Jackson has nine coaching championships running a share-the-ball system that Michael Jordan and O’Neal bought into. Payton has zero championships. He came to training camp and said all the right things about doing what was necessary to be part of a title team.

But it looks as if Payton and the Lakers aren’t going to get that title. Payton can take credit if it comes to that.

I only hope when I read about the Lakers the rest of these playoffs I’m reading about their three future Hall of Famers.