Gary Payton says there’s no shame in chasing an NBA championship.
The Hall of Famer, who won a late-career title with the Miami Heat in 2006, called off any criticism of Damian Lillard for attempting to force a trade to a championship contender.
“Everybody should chase a championship,” Payton told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Why are we playing basketball? That is the whole object of playing basketball. If you want to go somewhere else if you’ve got a chance to win a championship, go there. And that’s what I saw when I came to Miami. So I came here, look what happened.”
Lillard requested a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this month, with Miami set as his preferred destination. The Heat would pair Lillard with Jimmy Butler and close friend Bam Adebayo for a Big Three on a team that just made a Finals appearance.
Payton applauded Lillard’s decision to focus in on Miami as his destination and said the All-Star guard will thrive with the franchise’s culture.
“He’s a tough guy,” Payton said. “We’re from Oakland, California. He’s going to bite into the same thing I did, the culture here. He’ll give what Pat wants, what Spo wants. He will be a great fit here.
“I’ll guarantee you, what he did in Portland, he’ll do more here. You’ll have more of a culture here of winning. So I think it’ll be a good fit for him.”
Payton, like Lillard, was born in Oakland and built a Hall of Fame career starring in the Pacific Northwest. He played his first 13-plus seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics, earning nine All-NBA selections and winning the 1996 Defensive Player of the Year award.
With the Sonics struggling to compete and his career dwindling, Payton sought out championship glory. He bounced from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers to the Boston Celtics and then finally to the Heat, where he played a critical role in Miami’s 2006 NBA championship.
Lillard will hope he won’t have to bounce around as much as Payton to have a similar result.
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