“I actually look up to Alex Caruso a lot”: Gary Payton II open up about his time with the former Lakers guard in the G-League
Gary Payton II has had his fair share of struggles, but he’s finally getting recognized for the work he put in.
The Golden State Warriors have been the best team in the league this season – And Steph Curry is a large part of that success. But it is not just the big names that have been performing.
The role players have been amazing too – one of them is Gary Payton II. Son of the legendary Seattle Supersonics PG, Payton Jr. has struggled quite a bit in the NBA.
His career path is very similar to that of Chicago Bulls forward Alex Caruso, spending a lot of time in the G- League. Going undrafted in 2016, he joined the Houston Rockets and got waived 6 games into the pre-season. He then joined the Rio Grande Vipers, the South bay Lakers and moved around for almost half a decade until he finally landed at GSW.
He seems to have found a place in Steve Kerr’s side, getting regular minutes in a system that works. Intense on his defense, and a good driver to the rim. Gary shows hints of his game that he picked up from his father. Nicknamed “The Glove” it only made sense his son be good at defense too.
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Alex Caruso and Gary Payton II should be inspirations to young kids
Caruso and Gary shared time as teammates on the South Bay Lakers, both of them even played on the main team for as bit part players. The fact that such a big name superstar’s son took the long route and did not rest on his father’s laurels.
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![Jason Williams and Chris Webber have always been known to indulge in strange antics with each other, which was raised by Comedian Andrew Schulz, on his show, Flagrant. Appearing on the show, Jason Williams was asked whether he was involved "in a drive-by paintball shooting of Chris Webber's house in Sacramento". The White Chocolate burst into laughter and "plead the fifth". Williams confessed that maybe "his house caught some bullets along the way". However, to everyone's surprise, he told the comedian that "he [Chris Webber] was probably with me in some them drivebys." Adding to this, Williams also shared a hilarious story of a similar driveby with Webber, where the latter's shoe fell off but he had to somehow get it back. "We were doing that one time..we couldn't get in the gate or something so we decided we're going to go down and do our thing at the security guard at night, right, so we got two little scooters we are riding on these scooters and we dropped them in the dark and we are walking through the woods and whatever, we go the paintballs, we got the rocks, boom boom and we take off and left the scooters. But C Web's shoe falls off. And we got back and I was like 'Bro, where is your shoe?'" The story left everyone in the panel in splits as Williams made the 2021 Hall of Fame Inductee go all the way back to fetch his shoe because living in an all-white community, Webber was probably the only one with that size of shoe. However, on a serious note, the 2006 NBA champion confessed that it was one of the most fun times he had with his former teammate. He added that "it was a blessing in disguise" because they had to play a lot of games in different locations. It is obviously heartwarming to see such a chemistry between the legendary duo of Sacramento Kings. Jason Williams once had to travel in the undercarriage of the team bus Rookie hazing has been a part of teams in the NBA, where the veterans on the team try to build chemistry with young players in their own ways like alotting chores. Chris Webber once narrated one such incident where the rookie Jason Williams hid in the undercarriage of the team bus to avoid it. Upon reaching the hotel, the team noticed that Williams was missing. After searching for some time, the team looked under the bus and there was the 1998 draftee. When Webber asked him the reason, White Chocolate responded, "I don't wanna ride with y'all bi*ches up here." Even though it is a fun tradition among teammates to get to know each other, it did take a toll on the one-time All-Star. However, it was not long after this, the two developed good team ability to make some amazing plays together.](https://thesportsrush.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/7f3ad985-nba-2023-11-08t231816.707-300x300.jpg)
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