My bad. That was dumb of me; I forgot what league I was talking about. You see, this is the NBA, where players don't have to report to the team they're traded to if they don't like it. Thus, Payton probably never stepped foot in Hartsfield Airport. And what does Atlanta do? They cut him so he could resign with the Boston Celtics.
You can't really blame Payton for this. This is a "don't hate the player, hate the game" kinda thing. After all; the option was given to him, and he looked out for his own interests. Payton and Walker hustled the Hawks, and now with the trio of Payton, Pierce, and Walker, they are a threat to go deep in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The blame goes to the Hawks, who has been "rebuilding" ever since they got rid of Steve Smith and Dikembe Mutombo and fired Lenny Wilkens five years ago. They knew Payton wasn't going to play in Atlanta, because he almost pulled that stunt in Boston at the beginning of the year. If he was skeptical going to Boston, you had to know Payton felt he was too good to play with the worst team in the league.
So let's see what Atlanta got out of all this: they got Gary Payton, who didn't show up and had his contract bought out; Michael Stewart, who hasn't shown up and wants the same thing (who the hell is he anyway?). So that leaves Tom Gugliotta and a first round draft pick. They would have been better off cutting Walker from his contract and just be done with it all. At the very least, the Celtics organization should say "thank you" to those dopes in the Hawks front office.
Meanwhile, Hawks "fans" can look forward to another 11-70 season next year. Yay.