The Celtics’ Payton still cares a lot about what happens in Los Angeles, but his interest has nothing to do with his former team.

So what does Gary Payton think of the Lakers’ struggles? Doesn’t know, doesn’t care, he says. Kobe’s season? Doesn’t know, doesn’t care. The possible return of Phil Jackson? Doesn’t know, doesn’t care.

The former Laker guard, who returned with the Boston Celtics to face his old team at Staples Center on Tuesday night, may have put his old team in the rear-view mirror, but he has certainly not done the same with the city in which it plays.

Payton knows Los Angeles very well and cares about coming back here a great deal. It’s where his wife, Monique, and his three children, Raquel, Gary II and Julian, still live. And it is where his mother, Annie, who is suffering from cancer, lives as well.

Payton, who was here in December for a game against the Clippers, has also made at least four other trips to L.A. during the season to check on his mother, sometimes with only a single day off between games.

Payton doesn’t like to talk about his family, and he was just as reluctant to discuss the Lakers before and after Tuesday’s game.

“We’re on the East Coast, and they are on the West Coast,” he said. “I haven’t really paid attention. Last year I was a part of it. This year, I don’t have to be a part of it. You can’t make changes, have a new coach, have the coach quit, and expect the team to play well. That situation ain’t happening.That’s the way it is. I can’t do nothing for them. I ain’t with them.”

After scoring 11 points and getting five assists in 35 minutes in Tuesday night’s 104-95 loss to the Lakers, Payton said the night was nothing special.

“What emotions would I have for coming back here?” he said. “I’ve been in the league too long for that.”

The fact that Payton is still able to commute to L.A. on occasion has been made possible by Boston Coach Doc Rivers, who has instituted the Payton Rules, a small-scale version of the Jordan Rules that were in effect in the years Michael Jordan ruled the NBA.

“I’ve given Gary days off,” said Rivers, “because, after 15 years, he has paid his dues. I will let him miss a day of practice because, at this point in career, I don’t think it is going to make that much of a difference.

“It’s lucky that the veterans, like Paul [Pierce] and Ricky [Davis], have accepted it. They could have gone either way on something like that. Now I’ve got some of the young guys asking for days off and I tell them, ‘No, that is not the way we do things in this league. Gary Payton is the exception.’ ”

Of course, Rivers wouldn’t be so accommodating if Payton weren’t having a good season, if he was the Payton who had worn out his welcome in Los Angeles a year ago.

“Gary Payton has been the biggest surprise of the year for us,” Rivers said.

In August, it appeared the biggest surprise would be to merely see Payton in Celtic green. After he and Rick Fox were traded by the Lakers, Payton declared that he wouldn’t leave his family to go east.

After a visit by Boston executive Danny Ainge and the realization that retirement was his only other option, Payton grudgingly packed his bags and made the cross-country journey.

But once he arrived, the sulking was over.

” ... He has been a true professional,” Rivers said. “He gets on the young guys when it is necessary and saves my voice for me. And they listen to Gary.”

He has backed up his words. Heading into Tuesday night, he was averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 assists.

Yet despite all of his accomplishments this season, Payton remains the center of rumors heading into Thursday’s trading deadline.

“I don’t pay attention to that,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. This is a business.”

But wherever his job takes him, be assured, Payton’s heart will always bring him back to L.A.