Gary Payton II has finally made it big in the NBA, he is the starter of championship contenders – the Golden State Warriors.
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Most of us think life is easy for kids of successful people. It surely is in most aspects. Be it Business tycoons, Hollywood celebrities, Politicians, or Athletes, all of their successors have a launching pad far better than the children of people doing normal jobs or owning a small business.
But the pressure they face to carry forward the legacy of their parents after having a luxurious lifestyle is a contrasting ask. They generally don’t struggle for things their parents did, which was the primary reason for their success.
Celebrity kids lack the hunger to be successful, which is the most important aspect of making it big. And most of all it’s the offspring of star athletes who struggle to become even a part of what their parents were.
No superstar athletes of previous eras have a son/daughter who is a superstar athlete, not in the NBA at least. And Gary Payton II might also be one among those who no one would have thought that he’d be a starter of the Golden State Warriors’ playoff team.
Gary Payton II didn’t get anything easy because his father is The Glove
We all know who Gary Payton is, one of the best point guards of all time and certainly the best two-way guards of all time alongside Isiah Thomas. The Seattle SuperSonics superstar’s son didn’t have the start to his career like his father did.
Unlike The Glove who was the 2nd pick of 1990 Drafts, GPII went undrafted in 2016 even after being a 2x Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.
So, the 6’3 point guard started his professional career in the G League with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers he made his way to the league just next year with the Milwaukee Bucks then went to their G-league affiliates without getting many chances.
His back and forth movement between G-league and NBA continued until he landed in Golden State in 2021 after winning the G league in 2019 and becoming the steals leader and Defensive Player of the Year in 2021.
Warriors turned out to be his destiny after Payton had thought of quitting professional basketball
After his two 10-day stints with the Warriors in April 2021, and then getting cut in the off-season, Payton got the opportunity to play for the Warriors for the 2021-22 season becoming a key member in the rotation in Klay Thompson’s absence at the beginning.
Although he’s not as good a scorer or playmaker as his dad, his impact on the game is no less than the 9x All-Star used to have. Even the Payton Sr. sometimes gets surprised with his son’s athleticism who never shies away from guarding anybody on the court.
From thinking to quit playing professional basketball for good just a couple of years back to becoming one of the most impactful players on the Warriors team, he has come a long way.
Payton earned his first start of the Playoffs in the Western Conference Semi-finals against the Memphis Grizzlies after being a menace in the First Round against the Denver Nuggets, even troubling Nikola Jokic consistently in a 4-1 series victory. He always gets on to the opposition’s best players.
