Lakers Trade Payton, Fox to Celtics



BOSTON - The Los Angeles Lakers resumed their makeover Friday by trading Gary Payton and Rick Fox to the Boston Celtics for Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks and Chris Mihm.
The Celtics also received a conditional first-round draft pick and cash in the deal and sent a second-round pick to the Western Conference champions.

The teams were once among the NBA's fiercest rivals, but Boston has fallen on hard times since winning its 16th championship in 1986. Since then, the Lakers have won five titles and lost three times in the Finals, including this year's upset by the Detroit Pistons.

The Lakers then traded Shaquille O'Neal to Miami and replaced coach Phil Jackson with Rudy Tomjanovich. Derek Fisher left for Golden State and Vlade Divac, Los Angeles' center from the early '90s, was brought back for another stint.

Payton and Karl Malone took a large pay cut to join the Lakers as free agents last summer, each All-Star hoping to win his first championship.

Despite struggling through his first year with the team, the 36-year-old Payton exercised a $5.4 million option to come back for another season.

A nine-time All-Star who averaged 18.3 points per game over his first 13 seasons, Payton averaged 14.6 points - his lowest since the 1992-93 season - and a career-low 4.2 assists in the regular season last year. He averaged 7.8 points and 5.3 assists in the playoffs.

Payton was selected to the NBA's all-defensive team eight times and was voted the defensive player of the year in 1996. He is fifth on the league's all-time list with 2,243 steals and sixth with 8,039 assists; he needs 44 points to become the 29th player in NBA history to score 20,000 points.

Payton won Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2000. He has missed just six games in his 15-year career.

Fox was a Celtic for six seasons before joining the Lakers and winning three NBA titles. He has averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists over his career.

Mihm, a 7-footer who will help Divac fill the gap left by O'Neal's departure, averaged 6.3 points and 5.4 rebounds last year for Boston and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Atkins, who was acquired from the Pistons midway through last season, averaged 8.4 points and 3.5 assists last year. Banks, a first-round draft pick in 2003, started two games for the Celtics as a rookie.

By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer
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And the nightmare continues...

tA

Tribal Disorder

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LAKERS

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theAudience said:

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edit
[This message was edited Fri Aug 6 22:50:44 2004 by AndGodCreatedMe]

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

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AndGodCreatedMe said:

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AndGodCreatedMe said:

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