Gary Payton was inducted into the hall of fame over the weekend. The Oakland native has been very outspoken recently and in his latest interview, “The Glove” predicts his hometown Golden State Warriors will reach the NBA Finals.
“I think they’re going to be there,” Payton said. “I think they have a good chance of going. Picking up Andre (Igoudala), that was a good pickup for them. I think if (Andrew) Bogut plays well, they’re going to have a great chance. I just really do believe that. And I think Mark Jackson’s doing a great job down there. I’m really proud of my city. That’s why I mention it. People always think about our city as being the crime city. But they don’t understand. We’ve got a lot of good people coming out of there doing great things in athletics and doing a lot of things that’s positive. We want these kids to understand that they can do the same thing and come out and just keep our generation going that’s coming out of that area.”
Golden State definitely will be a tough out with a starting lineup of Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Lee and Bogut.