Gary Payton is the heart and soul of the Seattle Supersonics. He is the
symbol of the team to the outside world, the only visible player to the 
outside world, the only player whose jerseys are available outside the 
city of Seattle. GP has played his entire 11-year career in the city of 
Seattle, and he should have the opportunity to finish his career as a 
rare one-team player. He is the next Mr. Sonic, following in the 
footsteps of his mentor and current coach, Nate McMillan. Like 
McMillan, Payton deserves the chance to retire in Key Arena and see his 
jersey raised to the rafters while still a part of the organization, 
perhaps joining McMillan as a fellow coach.

In this era of free agency and trading that puts fantasy leagues to 
shame, few players have the chance to play their entire careers with 
one team, and superstars are no exception. No town knows this better 
than Seattle. We sports fans of Seattle have seen an exodus of sports 
stars that began with Payton's good friend Shawn Kemp and has continued 
with Mariners Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, Jr., and most devastatingly, 
Alex Rodriguez. In all of these cases, the player left as their own 
choice. In three of the cases, this meant demanding a trade. In the 
case of Rodriguez, this meant leading on his team and his city before 
eventually proving cynics correct by going where the money was. 


Payton has not asked to leave the Sonics. Instead, through one of his 
agents, Eric Goodwin, he has made it abundantly clear that he prefers 
to stay in Seattle. "The thought never crossed my mind today that he 
would be traded," said Goodwin after the season concluded, "because I 
don't think that this organization can afford to cheat its fans out of 
a player of Gary's caliber." Indeed, trading Gary would be cheating the 
fans, and certainly not fit with Howard Schultz and Wally Walker's 
announced intentions to create a fan-friendly team. Goodwin addresses 
this, saying, "If (Sonic ownership) really mean what it says in terms 
of giving back to the fans and building a team that's going to play 
hard every night, then why would you consider (trading) a player who 
plays his (butt) off every night." If Sonic management thinks 
attendance is low now, imagine what it would be like without the 
Sonics' most marketable player.


We as Sonic fans understand the neccesity of improving the team and not 
standing pat on this season's disappointing 45-37 record. However, the 
way to go about doing this is not by trading a 7-time All-Star who was 
named to the NBA's First Team all-League just last season. The Sonics 
would never be able to get this kind of value in return for Payton. A 
trade would only mean rebuilding the team almost from scratch, 
something that the Sonics can not afford to do without alienating their 
fan base.

Through the course of his 11-year career, GP has become just as much a 
part of the city of Seattle as the Space Needle, the Pike Place Market, 
or Mt. Rainier. Trading him would take away the Sonics' heart. It is 
for these reasons that we believe that Sonics ownership should end 
their open-ended proclamations like Wally Walker's comment on April 25 
that the Sonics, "Have to listen to what people offer (them) for 
(their) best asset." We ask that the Sonics officially declare Gary 
Payton off-limits to trade offers and ensure that Sonic fans be able to 
watch their beloved superstar in the 2001-2002 season and beyond.