Gary Payton repects Phil Jackson more than Pat Riley

[GangstaBoogy]

Interesting. It seemed like he hated Phil...

The topic of coaches seems as good a place as any to start off this GP career retrospective.

"If I had to rate 'em, George [Karl], Phil [Jackson] and then Doc [Rivers]," Payton said.

Noticeably absent: Pat Riley, his coach for two years in Miami, one of the all-time greats. Riley, after all, was the coach when Payton won his long-awaited championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.

"Well, ohhh-kay, that don't mean nothing," Payton said. "It just so happened we won a ring with him. He ain't my favorite. [It's] a lot of things. I really wouldn't want to go into it. I put the relationship before everything. As far as a relationship, George was the best. Doc was next."

People who remember Payton's one season with the Lakers might be surprised to hear him rank Jackson among his three favorite coaches. Payton wasn't a good fit in the triangle offense and he spent most of the last few playoff games brooding on the bench while most of his minutes went to Derek Fisher.

"We weren't clashing," Payton said. "Phil never got into any screaming matches. He decided he didn't want to play me, because of what he was hearing or seeing. I don't think he was making the decisions at the time. It was never me and him [getting] into it. I'm talking the relationship, him being cool knowing you were a veteran, being in the league long as I was, giving me that type of respect."

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Although Riley was the shit back in the day, he comes off as a piece of shit now. Not saying he is, but dude is definitely snakey... It's not hard to see why someone would dislike him. Only a butt-hurt Shaq would put Riley above Phil...PeACe

[J$crILLa]

the Glove know what he talkin bout