SEATTLE -- He's gone.

Well, Gary Payton's almost gone.

There is, after all, that little matter of him showing up at KeyArena tonight and getting props from the crowd for his 12-plus-years of unbelieveable service, for reforming himself from a jump shooter with a seriously broke knuckleball to the most prolific scorer in team history, for helping redefine what perimeter defense was meant to be and for, well, that non-stop, vitriolic, vile, cutting motor mouth that could entertain at the exact same time that it dripped venom.

They say that when Lenny Wilkens returned to Seattle for the first time as an Atlanta Hawk, the Sonics' faithful gave him a five-minute standing O. Lenny was a pretty good player. But he was not GP, or at least he did not capture the imaginations of the fan base like GP has.

	Only the Space Needle has stood longer in Seattle than Gary Payton, left.

It will be interesting to see how the Sonics handle the situation tonight, because GP and Desmond Mason -- I'm dying inside that I can't watch this kid develop -- will not be playing for the Milwaukee Bucks and Ray Allen and Kevin Ollie will not dress for the Sonics.

It's somewhat odd, because when I was covering Washington in 1994, the Bullets traded for Chris Webber and signed Juwan Howard on the same day, Nov. 17, and that same night they played against the New Jersey Nets.

What I suspect the Sonics did was tell Ernie Grunfeld: "Hey, we'll do this deal, but we have to agree that no players can play for 48 hours, because there is no way we are trading Gary and then letting him drop 50 on us at our own place."

G would have, too. The other night in Portland, Payton was sitting on the scorer's table talking about the trade deadline. He said, "I don't know what's going to happen. But if I end up (in Portland), all I know is I play these m----- f------ four times a year."

Instead, Payton will be sitting on the end of the bench, and I can't wait to see if the Sonics actually have their public address announcer introduce Payton. It would be the classy thing to do, given all that he has done for this organization.

It's a shame that Payton could not end his career here, because there are too few stories of athletes playing their entire careers in one city. But, I have to say, some of this divorce was of Payton's own doing.

One of Payton's personality traits -- and some would say one of the reasons he is so successful on the court -- is that he is a bully. Ask any rookie. Ask Steve Francis about his first year in the league, when Payton stepped up on him during an innocuous preseason free throw and called him a "punk-ass b----."

Payton's harrassment of rookies is legendary. They say he does it to test them, to see if they have what it takes to make it in the league. And as soon as you bust Payton once or twice, and then talk back, he'll leave you alone.

It's humorous to witness, but a more apropos analogy is the schoolyard bully who picks on the skinny kid until the skinny kid cracks him in the mug. This time, Payton picked the wrong rookie to try to bully. He picked on rookie owner Howard Schultz, and Schultz was having none of it.

It's one thing to be embarrassed by Payton, the way former Sonics owner Barry Ackerley had been, if Payton is helping lead the team to the NBA Finals and multiple 55- and 60-win seasons. It's quite another for Payton to try to embarrass a man of Schultz's repute when the team is eight games under .500 and going no where fast.

And so when Payton tried to flex his muscles on the first day of practice this season by not showing up, and when Payton and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, publicly called Schultz a liar about a contract extension that never was made, a battle of wills was on. And believe me, Schultz is NEVER, EVER going to allow one of his employees, even one that makes $13 million, to dictate what his company is going to do.

This trade came about for two reasons.

	Gary Payton tried to bully the wrong guy, Sonics owner Howard Schultz.

First, the Sonics realized that their summertime plan of letting Payton and Kenny Anderson slip away and using that cap space to sign free agents was quickly falling apart. Word is that the salary cap, at $40.5 million this season, is either going to stay the same or go down, and the Sonics had anticipated it going up. They have significantly less money than they thought, and they have been unable to unload any of their excessive $5 million 7-footers.

Also, they are beginning to hear rumors that Elton Brand may sign a one-year qualifying offer with the Clippers in order to become an unrestricted free agent next season. And so if Gilbert Arenas goes to Denver, and if Andre Miller goes to Utah, the only thing left for the Sonics to do to acquire any talent was to do a sign-and-trade for Payton -- and we've already outlined that relationship for you.

At a time when their fan base is drifting away and management is beginning to get annihilated in the local press, the Sonics were beginning to wonder what exactly they could do. Then Milwaukee called Wednesday night. The Bucks wanted to swap Sam Cassell and some other detritus for Payton. Sonics general manager Rick Sund said any deal involving Payton had to include Allen. The Bucks hung up the phone.

Sund got to his office Thursday morning, the morning of the trade deadline, and fielded another call from Grunfeld. He told Sund that they could include Allen, but Mason had to be added on the Sonics' side in case Payton doesn't re-sign with Milwaukee in the summer.

The Sonics agreed to that but countered that a conditional draft pick had to be included to try to replace Mason. It conceivably could give the Sonics two first-round picks among the top 10 this summer.

As for Kenny Anderson being sent to New Orleans for Elden Campbell, it was strictly a luxury tax decision. It saves the Sonics $1.2 million in salary this season, sending them into that netherworld of the cliff provision, where they have to pay some tax penalty but still are able to get back a dispursement large enough to cover the penalty. Plus they get to look at Campbell for 30 games and see if he has anything left -- or at least if he is better than the other four stiffs they have at the end of their bench.

But it is the Payton trade that has Seattle talking, trying to figure out how, exactly, it lost a player whose jersey will one day hang in the rafters and who was, really, the last superstar remaining in a town where Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez have been jettisoned.

	Even Sonics coach Nate McMillan -- who looked like his dog, cat and gerbil got run over by a steamroller -- has to admit that if you are not going to win with Payton, you might as well try a different route.

Personally, I'm not super-excited about the deal, but I think it is probably better than anything the Sonics were going to get this summer. Allen is, after all, an All-Star -- and let's not forget that at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, it was Allen who punched Payton in the face and made him back down. Even Sonics coach Nate McMillan -- who looked like his dog, cat and gerbil got run over by a steamroller -- has to admit that if you are not going to win with Payton, you might as well try a different route.

The thing that is troublesome is that the Sonics now are a team that will play ZERO defense, and McMillan's entire personality is predicated on a defensive intensity that includes trapping and rotating and in-your-face lockdown.

Last week, I wrote a story detailing how McMillan right now is at odds with the direction management is taking this team, and there is the distinct possibility that if he feels he cannot get the job done here, he would step aside -- which would possibly allow him to coach the Charlotte expansion franchise, since he grew up there and has a relationship with the team's executive vice president, Ed Tapscott. This move, in a way, pushes that possibility even closer to the fore, because, for now, this team's personality does not match that of its coach.

As for Payton, who knows where he'll end up. It seems, since the Bucks did not get an assurance from Payton that he'll re-sign this summer, the move could have been made as a salary-cutting measure to better facilitate the sale of the team by owner Herb Kohl.

But how about this scenario? The Sonics, with Ollie, Ronald Murray and Joseph Forte, are in desperate need of a point guard. They will be over the cap this summer, but will have their $4.5 million exception. Payton is a free agent. Might the Sonics offer him a four-year, $20 million deal, and Payton can finish his career in a Sonics uniform, alongside Allen, the player for whom he was traded?

At least Payton won't try to bully him.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.