“I will not go to Oklahoma and retire my jersey there”: How Gary Payton emphatically rejected retiring his jersey with the Thunder to stay true to the Seattle SuperSonics

Gary Payton still holds out hope that his jersey could be retired by the Seattle SuperSonics as he claimed he wouldn’t want it done in OKC. 

Gary Payton is widely regarded as one of the greatest perimeter defenders the NBA has had to offer over its 75 years of existence. The 1996 steals champion made just as many All-NBA teams as he did All-Defensive teams (9) and reached the NBA Finals on two separate occasions with the time in 2006 resulting in him winning his one and only ring. 

His illustrious career most definitely deserved to be honored in two ways: an induction into the Hall-of-Fame and his jersey retirement. Both of these things happened as he was inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 as a player and he had his jersey retired alongside Seattle SuperSonics like Spencer Haywood in 2017.

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The latter one of those honors however, was bittersweet for Gary Payton as he could not have his jersey retired by the franchise he spent his first 12 years with. 

Gary Payton on having his jersey retired by the SuperSonics. 

Following the end of the 2007-08 NBA season, the Seattle SuperSonics no longer existed. They were moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City and adopted the name, the ‘Oklahoma City Thunder’. They inherited the Sonics’ past successes and failures but none of the allure. At least, at that time that is. 

Gary Payton, who unfortunately had his jersey retirement drag out for much longer than it needed to, taking the Sonics 15 years to do so, led to an even more unfortunate circumstance: the Seattle SuperSonics didn’t exist so as to retire ‘The Glove’s’ jersey and raise it into Sonics Arena. 

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This led to his jersey being hung at Paramount Theatre, Seattle. Though the day was still an auspicious one, it would’ve been exactly what Gary Payton dreamt of it being if it were in the Sonics Arena. In regards to perhaps biting the bullet and getting it retired by the Thunder instead, Gary said: 

“I wish we could do it for real. I will not go to Oklahoma and retire my jersey there. You guys were the ones with me every day.” 

Rightfully so as NBA fans in Oklahoma have no ties to Payton. The defensive minded guard did not play a lick of basketball for OKC and so it would make no sense for OKC fans to pretend to embrace the Hall of Famer.