Gary Payton Headlines Pro Basketball HOF - East Idaho News
Sports

Gary Payton Headlines Pro Basketball HOF

  Published at

Getty S Gen NBABallCourt?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1378685689371Thomas Northcut/Digital Vision(SPRINGFIELD, Mass.) — The Pro Basketball Hall of Fame inducted its newest members into the hall on Sunday. 

Gary Payton headlined the class, along with Bernard King, both who were taken back by the honor.

“I don’t regret the way I went about it and I’m a strong man today as a result, but I can’t help but think I could have given more to the game that gave so much to me,” Payton, the famed trash talker said.  “My career is complete, Gary Payton is evolving, but GP is in the Hall of Fame.”

Joining Payton and King were Louisville coach Rick Pitino, two former college coaches — Jerry Tarkanian and Guy Lewis, E.B. Henderson, four-time ABA All-Star Roger Brown, North Carolina women’s coach Sylvia Hatchell, WNBA All-Star Dawn Staley, former Knicks guard Richie Guerin, and NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik and Oscar Schmidt.

“Anything you dream of and set a goal for can be achieved through hard work, education, the desire to achieve and commitments,” King said.

Pitino looked around the audience and all the members who came before him and still felt as if he did not belong.

“Coaches don’t get in the Hall of Fame,” Pitino said. “Players put them in the Hall of Fame and I’ve had a great journey along the way.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION