Gary Payton made it clear to high schooler GPII that he was “a sorry-as* basketball player”

Akash Murty | 11/09/2022
Gary Payton made it clear to high schooler GPII that he “was a sorry-as* basketball player”

Former Seattle Supersonics and Miami Heat point guard, Gary Payton, didn’t believe his son would be any good in basketball.

Like most other star athlete’s children, Gary Payton II had the pressure to become a good enough basketball player to carry forward his father’s legacy.

But unlike others, this pressure was not rooted from the expectations of the society, it was directly coming from the Supersonics legend himself.

Apart from being arguably the best two-way point guard in the history of basketball, The Glove, a 9x All-Star and 9x All-Defensive First Team (NBA record) member, was also a well-known trash-talker in the NBA.

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And it seems he couldn’t leave that habit behind while coming back home.

Gary Payton used to trash talk even his own son, Gary Payton II

Gary Payton II wasn’t a star basketball player in high school and was playing all sports. His father gave him a hard time for it and even threatened not to pay him for college, telling him to find a job to pay for it himself. But on top of that, he literally belittled him for his basketball skills.

“And then one summer, my dad told me I wasn’t a good basketball player,” Payton II said on a recent episode of the Truth and Basketball podcast.

He added, “Ha, he told me I was a sorry-as* basketball player … And he told me to get a job or get a scholarship because he wasn’t going to pay for me to get to school”.

Wow! From that to being a proud father whose son, while fighting his way up from being an undrafted player in 2016 to becoming an important role player for the Golden State Warriors won an NBA championship in 2022.

Although senior Payton was a player on an entirely different level, his kid’s way earlier success championship-wise, while he won his only title well into his decline, must have made him even prouder.

Also read: Shaquille O’Neal realized the importance of education after potentially requiring an academic scholarship to go to college

The first DPOY point guard of the NBA night believes that his son’s athleticism did not come from him, but he can surely take credit for the Blazers’ guard’s strong defensive game.

Maybe it’s his genes or his trash-talk Gary Payton II never backs down from any challenge on the basketball, be it, it guards or 7-footers he is facing.

 

 

 

Post Edited By: Akash Murty
Gary Payton Gary Payton II Golden State Warriors

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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