At the beginning of the year, I grew sick and tired of hearing how these two hall of famers were making the ultimate financial sacrafice by comming to the lakers to help them secure another title... The lakers, media and payton and malone tried to dupe us,to hoodwink us into believing that these two aging former superstars were sacraficing for the greater good and were going to make the lakers the powerhouse team of the century.... I tried to explain that although the lakers were probably still the best team in the NBA, that payton and malone didn't seem like good fits and that dominance was not a given...

What also upsets me is all this talk of sacrafice. Payton and malone didn't sacrafice Crap, they are getting paid their current worth!! These guys are no longer the 10 million dollar plus a year players they used to be, if they were really sacraficing then malone should of stopped signing those 18 million dollar a year extensions on a team he knew didn't have a shot to win in utah and either join the spurs or lakers back then.. Payton should have done the same.. These guys are fake and now they are being exposed for what they really are... "hangers on", yes they are hanging on to a thread as thin as the cartilege in malones aching knees, for a chance to win a title. Malone is giving nothing and payton is getting abused by a mediocre Pg in billups. To me their legacy is being tarnished, these guys were supposed to be the difference makers, they were supposed to be the upgrades over fox, horry and fisher, instead they are killing the lakers with their lack of production and whining(see gary payton)... Now with all this said, the lakers may still come back from 3-1 and win, but if they do,I still won't feel any different by these two imposters called payton and malone, these two guys who were supposed to be making the ultimate financial sacarice.... HA!!! they can't fool me and they can't fool the rest of america ,and they aren't fooling the pistons, as they are exposed with their pants down in front of america to see......

That is the way I see it, and that's the way it is!!!

TKF....

yeah, i said the same thing. i lost an incredible amount of respect for the two. malone just leaving an organization that treated him like a king just to be a third tier player in la. he was disrespecting kobe a few years ago at the all-star game and now he is chummy. i could understand in the beginning with payton but then he had the nerve to come to the team and complain about the offense they are running. he has been around for years. he knows what the lakers run or phil jackson runs in his offense. it is not like a suprise. but he is upset becuase he fells neglected. man, i lost mad respect for the both of them.

Malone's a dummy, but he's been hurt. As for GP when you have his resume its not ridiculous to assume the coach would create a respectable role for you. Instead they wanted to him to be BJ Armstrong, Ron Harper or Derrick Fisher and I dont blame him one bit for being annoyed. Gary will be an LA scapegoat, go play somewhere else next year and average 20/7 on a playoff team, and people will realize that in Phil's one true coaching challenge he laid a total egg and got outcoached by Larry Brown.

what is scaring is that the piston is a young team, meaning the same core could play a few yrs and win a few rings before breaking out.

in fact that's the true difference between malone and gp. One succeeded in merging with the team, the other did not.

What i find tough about gp is that he's being singled out cause of billups, when there's clearly an issue of team defense. GP is kind of scapegoat, but his behaviour doesn't help either.

agreed...they really miss Robert Horry in this series...he would open up the inside for Kobe & others to penetrate the lane, because he can shoot from the perimeter.

the PG on that team needs to be able to drain open 3 point shots...Phil Jackson has always had those types of players on his championship teams, from B.J. Armstrong, to Craig Hodges, to John Paxson (was he a PG? not sure) to Steve Kerr, to Derek Fisher...Gary Payton is not a spot up shooter...he's a post up, screen & roll type PG who needs to have the ball in his hands orchestrating & making things happen while dominating the ball & scoring...he is just a bad fit for the triangle that the Lakers run, because that role is filled by Kobe most of the time.

How awesome would it be if Malone crippled himself in this series and he could never walk again?!!!

i don't feel bad for either of them. all payton has done since he's been there is whine and moan. true, because of phil jackson's stubborness, payton had absolutely no plays drawn up for him. but i remember him saying in his contract signing that he'd do anything and run any offense to get a ring. so he lied and phil screwed him. malone talks alot about other people. he constantly dissed the new guard and had a bad parting of ways with the jazz.

but regardless of either situation, they're grown ass men getting paid millions to play the game. they're nothing but prima donnas that play the blame game the minute something goes wrong.

the lakers reap what they sow by signing two 36+ year olds and phil jackson for being a stubborn OVERRATED coach. the only thing that makes me happy about this lakers inevitable loss is that maybe, finally people will start thinking twice before calling phil the greatest coach ever.

come to think about this Malone goes to LA without Stockton probably upset the order of winning....Anyone thinks GP stays with LA next year? GP to Boston or Indiana ?