Gary Payton is known as one of the greatest trash talks of all time. In this particular situation, he will probably get back everything he said. Things got very hot during a quarrel with Ricky Pierce (his teammate) in Game 1 of the 1994 NBA Playoffs.
You wouldn’t have expected this to happen as the Seattle SuperSonics steam-rolled the Nuggets 25 points each into half-time. But George Karl vividly remembers what happened.
He states: “Three years ago, the first outbreak wasn’t seen, but he and Ricky Pierce had some discussion during the first half-time of the Denver game and threatened to get a gun. I told me I had a gun. It was “killing your family.” It was crazy. “
The hostile relationship between Gary Payton and Ricky Pierce continues throughout the series as Payton was tired of “taking too many shots” in Game 3 and said “I need to pass more balls”. I did. Peyton went on to say, “If Ricky had a problem with me taking too many shots, he should have said something sooner.” They were 2-0 in the series, but chemistry collapsed and it appeared in their play. The Nuggets pulled the comeback and won the series.
Even today, no one knows exactly where the hostility came from.
