SEATTLE -- Despite some unhappy comments from eight-time All-Star point guard Gary Payton, the SuperSonics expect him to play his hardest in what might be his final season for them.

	Payton

Payton said this week he's feeling unwanted and disrespected after 12 seasons with the Sonics because owner Howard Schultz refuses to give him a contract extension.

"Everything's 50-50 right now,'' Payton told The Seattle Times. "It's 50 percent odds that I'm going to be a Sonic and 50 percent odds that I'm not.''

The Sonics expect Payton, who is the franchise's all-time scoring leader, to be at their training camp Oct. 1.

"I'd be surprised if he wasn't here,'' Sonics general manager Rick Sund said of Payton after a news conference Thursday to announce the re-signing of unrestricted free agent Rashard Lewis.

The Sonics have been aware of Payton's discontent all summer, but they're also counting on him playing hard this season so he can enhance his opportunities next summer, when he becomes a free agent.

He averaged 22.1 points and passed for a career-high 9.0 assists last season.

"He's a competitor, he likes the organization and he's under contract,'' Sund said. "It was known early in the summer when I talked to Gary that we weren't going to extend.''

Sund said he told Payton then that the Sonics planned to sit down and talk to him about an extension at the end of the season.

Payton, 34, will earn $9 million this season, the most for any point guard in the league.

Sund said Payton doesn't have any reason to be upset with the Sonics.

"It's pretty standard operating procedure for players in their 30s to finish their contracts out and then you sit down with them and you evaluate from that point on where you want to go and where the player wants to go,'' Sund said.

Wally Walker, the team's president and CEO, said he hadn't spoken to Payton "but I'd be surprised if he's not here and our expectation is that he will be here.

"We have tremendous respect for Gary,'' he said.

Schultz, chairman of Starbucks Coffee Co., said he thinks Payton's hurt feelings can be smoothed over.

"No one has more respect and admiration for Gary Payton in this organization than I do,'' Schultz said.