I believe that you can have friends in your sport. When you’re part of the elite in whatever sport you play, you immediately have a kinship with your peers. Sure when on court you need to see everyone in your way as the enemy but if Gary Payton, of all people, can have friends in the NBA, why can’t everyone else?
Back in the 90’s, Gary Payton and recently anointed Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan were the best of friends, Payton replaced McMillan in Seattle as a Rookie and McMillan ended up being one of Payton’s groomsmen. But when the new millennium came around, Nate McMillan turned to coaching and the relationship between the two men was forced to change.
“Our friendship became another way, because he had to take it as a job, and I didn’t see it that way,” Payton said, reflecting on the time. “We bumped heads.”
Payton knows Nate McMillan inside out, as a friend and as a coach. So when Gary Payton says that coach Nate will need to change his coaching style, the Pacers might need to take this particular opinion seriously.
“(McMillan) can’t be that militant coach,” Payton said of his friend who developed the moniker “Sarge” while coaching in Portland. “You see what happened with George Karl up in Sacramento. When you’ve got players and it happens like that, you’re going to be the odd man out. I don’t think ownership these days are taking the side of a coach unless you’re a (Gregg) Popovich or something like that, over these 15 (million)-20 million dollar players.”
Now people were already screw facing at this promotion because Larry Bird wanted a different voice but instead gave McMillan the job, already a prominent voice in the Pacers organisation.
We aren’t in the offseason yet and we are already getting yellow flags, this will be an interesting time in the Pacers plan for growth.
