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Payton fined for avoiding media

LOS ANGELES -- After avoiding reporters following Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Gary Payton spoke Monday.

But not for long ... and certainly not long enough to avoid being fined $5,000 by the league for failing to make himself available to the media.

Initially when asked Monday if he would be talking, Payton replied: "In a minute."

Then, with practice over, he left the court and headed toward the locker room.

Twenty minutes later, with about 50 media members waiting at a designated podium, Los Angeles Lakers spokesman John Black informed reporters Payton wasn't coming back.

Payton also left Staples Center without comment following his team's 87-75 loss to the Detroit Pistons a night earlier.

It wasn't a good game for Payton, who shot 1-of-4 for three points in 31 minutes while his man, Chauncey Billups, led the Pistons with 22 points. Payton committed his fifth foul with 3 minutes left in the third quarter and didn't play again until late in the final period.

"I don't know if any of us can understand the emotion that Gary's dealing with at this time," teammate Derek Fisher said. "He came here for one reason only, and he went through a tough season. To get this close to it and to struggle, that's got to be tough.

"We have a responsibility to address the media. We have to respect the fact that Gary's not very pleased with what's going on right now. Hopefully we can come out and play better tomorrow night and you guys will have a chance to talk to him."

NBA spokesman Tim Frank announced Payton's fine issued by NBA senior vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson.

Payton and Karl Malone, who both have Hall of Fame credentials, joined the Lakers at discount prices last summer in search of their first championship rings.

Payton reached the finals once in his previous 13 seasons -- with Seattle in 1996, when the Bulls beat the SuperSonics four games to two to win their fourth title in six years.

To say he's had a difficult time with his new team would be an understatement. While the 35-year-old guard has started every game, he hasn't hid his disappointment about playing time -- especially when benched in the fourth quarter.

And he's also made clear his discomfort with the Lakers' triangle offense.

Payton avoided the media on several occasions during the season. Once when he did talk, he went on a memorable rant the day before Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals against San Antonio last month, sarcastically accepting the blame for the Lakers' losses in the first two games. The Lakers won the next four.

"He doesn't take losing very well," teammate Rick Fox said. "That's understandable. He might feel that coming out and talking when he's not in the best place wouldn't be good for the team."

When asked about Payton's demeanor in practice, Fox replied: "It looked like he's looking forward to the next opportunity."

Devean George said the entire team was less talkative and more businesslike at practice Monday.

"I think he might be a little frustrated, but we're all frustrated," George said. "That's part of the game. Sometimes people get angry and frustrated and mad. Usually, Gary's very loose and talkative. Today, we were focused."

Assistant coach Jim Cleamons said Payton will need some help on the defensive end Tuesday night in Game 2.

"As a basketball team, we have to help him," Cleamons said. "Point guards in this league have to be multitasked. Chauncey can score, he can distribute. We didn't play screen-and-roll situations correctly. Our bigs did not show up."

Payton wasn't the only Laker role player to have a sub-par game offensively. Fisher shot 1-of-9 for two points and Malone was 2-of-9 for four points.

Malone, in fact, blamed himself for the loss.

"I slept well, but I went to bed with a bad taste in my mouth, and woke up with one," he said Monday.

"Nothing surprises me with our team anymore," said Fox, a member of championship teams with the Lakers from 2000-2002. "Now what will surprise me is if we don't respond."

any thoughts on payton's attitude?

or the notion that you're fined for not talking to the media?

I always thought the mandatory "talk to the press" rule was pretty silly, but hey, these guys are getting paid millions....if the most annoying part of their job is to answer bland, inoffensive questions for a few minutes, who can complain?

It hurts the league if they don't talk. How else do they advertise? If these guys are paid millions there's no motivation on their part to talk, but if there's a fine then they're more likely to do so.

Knowing GP, he's pissed about his role in the offense and knows if he talks he's gonna say something he'll regret, like he did earlier in the playoffs. Better to get fined then hurt the team with some controversy.

I suppose they could advertise through, you know, advertisements. Do non-fans suddenly decide to watch games because they hear players spout cliches like "it was a team effort," "I'm here to win games" and "you gotta go out there every day and give a hunnert and ten percent"?

I already understood the league's explanation just fine, and I still think it's a silly rule.

I would prefer that basketball players keep their mouths shut, for many obvious reasons.

There are players who love to speak to the media. The media has to figure out who they are, and just speak with them. If they happen to be stars, great. If not, then maybe the stars will get off their high horses and start to respect thier fans by speaking with the media.

The only person on any team who should be required to speak with the media is the team captain. That's all. This madatory crap is just that.

i still don't watch basketball games.

How can they fine Walter Payton aint he dead?

So you never read the sports page? So you never check out ESPN.com? Don't pick up Sport Illustrated? And I don't think your Jordan comparison works. Jordan is the exception, not the norm. I don't see Devean George with a Gatorade commerical. I don't see Trent Dilfer in Nike ads, or Matt LeCroy of the Twins doing Pizza Hut commericals. Comparing Jordan to most other pro athletes just doesn't work because most athletes don't have the charisma, charm or success that Jordan did.

Pro sports relationship with the media is a give-and-take relationship. If the players and coaches don't work with them, then they aren't covered in the papers, magazines and TV. If they aren't there, then no one knows how they're doing. You can't deny that leagues like the WNBA and NHL don't get nearly enough press as the NBA, MLB or NFL or even NASCAR. If they did they might get more people to come out and see them.

But in essence your point is that promoting the sport is dependent on what product the athlete endorses. That's a load of crap and they're promoting the product and not the game in that scenario. Nor does the league have any control in that situation. You've never seen the NBA or any other league say "No, you can't endorse that product." The players choose that and the advertiser chooses how the product is advertised. The league has no choice in the matter. If they did try to block something controversial the players union would step in and tell them to back off.

On that note, you never see the players union protest a player being fined for skipping the media session. That's because they know who's right in that matter.

I don't see where it's even implied that what product an athlete endorses has shit to do with promoting the league. My point is, exposure through commercials and ads--ANY commercials and ads--does more to bring attention to the league than talking to the press after a game does. If you watch the commercials these guys are in, they're almost ALWAYS showing them playing basketball, with an implication that they use the product(Gatorade and Nike commercials especially put the sport in the forefront of their ads).

And let's not forget, the league runs its own commercials and spots all the fucking time. You know, "I love this game!" Just try and tell me that those don't bring more exposure than forced, paint by numbers press conferences. I also made the point that no matter what, the media will report on these leagues, regardless of how the players treat them. I mean, there's been more reporting on Payton not talking than there has been on anything he's said all season, so your argument gets completely lost here. Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan snubbed post-game conferences all the time, and it didn't do anything to make the press stop reporting on them and the public stop paying attention to them.

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That's because they know who's right in that matter.

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So, you know for a fact why the players union wouldn't protest fines like that? Got them on speed dial or something?

Maybe it's because the fines are so small and are only given to players making multi-multi-millions of dollars('cause, who else would the media be waiting to talk to after a game, Paul Shirley?), there's no point in protesting. Or maybe it's because the league still lets them get away with doing as much pot as they want, so they won't risk pissing anyone off over something as trivial as $5,000 fines. I don't know why the union doesn't mind the fines, and I don't care. Post-game press conferences don't do shit in promoting the league, and both sides probably know it.

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If you watch the commercials these guys are in, they're almost ALWAYS showing them playing basketball, with an implication that they use the product

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So what happens if someone who's doesn't know who Steve Nash is see's an Oldsmobile commercial with him in it? Typically these commercials do not show them in their NBA team uniform because they only have the right to show the NBA player, not the team identity. In those cases, the connection is lost on the viewer if they don't know who Nash is. If they can't relate to the commerical or the athlete endorsing said product, then the ad is lost on the viewer. That's why most commercials like this you only see during NBA games.

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And let's not forget, the league runs its own commercials and spots all the fucking time. You know, "I love this game!"

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But again, only during games. You never see them in primetime, say, like during a broadcast of CSI or Friends. Rather limited, wouldn't you say? As opposed to seeing a feature on ESPN SportsCenter or reading about them in the newspaper or on the web.

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Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan snubbed post-game conferences all the time, and it didn't do anything to make the press stop reporting on them and the public stop paying attention to them.

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Again, exception, not the norm. It's well established how much money Jordan made and I bet more often than not Jerry Reinsdorf paid the fine. Rodman was off in his own universe. If athletes didn't care, why doesn't a team en masse blow off the media? You don't see guys like Derek Anderson, Bobby Jackson or other bench players skip media sessions. They know which side their bread is buttered on.

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So, you know for a fact why the players union wouldn't protest fines like that?

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Please. You should know by now stuff like that isn't a state secret. And the player being fined always screams foul. And the media always jumps all over that. There's always a due process for an appeal for fines and I don't hear Payton appealing his. If he did it would be published and his agent Aaron Goodwin would publicly lambaste the league for fining his client. That's pretty much standard M.O. for all agents.

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Post-game press conferences don't do shit in promoting the league, and both sides probably know it.

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Well, that's your opinion. But personally I like hearing a players perspective about the game they were in. I'm not satisfied with only a box score. And if players didn't work with the media afterwards we wouldn't even get that.