<div class="quote_poster">Quoting "sunsfan1357":</div><div class="quote_post"> Easy way out? He's not pulling a Mitch Richmond here. Gary Payton can still contribute and last season had one of his best statistical seasons in his career. As long as he can still make contributions to the team I don't see why him choosing less money is bad for a championship.</div> thats right... its still the easy way out if he contributes or not... Kobe and Shaq are quite capable to win a championship without him... and whether he gets consiberably good numbers its still the easy way out... Joining 3 (cause he knows Malone is joining) superstars is the easy way out... I dont know what else is...
The easy way out is not having to do anything while your on a team to get a championship. Payton knows that both he and Malone have to produce in order for the Lakers to get what they want.
Yea but techincally they dont havta produce night in and night out... and if they have a off day the other 3 can pick up slack up because they are just that damn good... if Duncan has a off day the Spurs lose, if JKidd has a bad game, the Nets lose, KG, AI, TMac... the list goes on... its the easy way out... you can throw all kinds of opinions at at me but GP has still lost some of what great respect I had for him... and another thing... I dont judge players by rings... the 2 greastest power fowards (in my mind) Barkley and Malone dont have rings... winining a championship is a team game and everyone cant win em...
