"It's time," Aaron Goodwin, Gary Payton's agent, said. "Gary's been their guy (for 11 years) and he doesn't like the way things are going. He wants to win and he doesn't believe the people running the organization are going in that direction. That's not the way he put it, but that's what he meant. It's time to move on."

Goodwin said a trade demand is coming. It seems that Payton and fellow Goodwin representative Vin Baker have lost faith in the Sonics organisation, and there is nothing Seattle can say to change their minds.  "Their word is jelly ... slides all over the place. It's my job to get him out of there."