Gary Payton Rumors
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Gary Payton
Position: -
Born: 07/23/68
Height: 6-4 / 1.93
Weight:179 lbs. / 81.6 kg.
Earnings: $104,367,619 ($625,688*)
Born: 07/23/68
Height: 6-4 / 1.93
Weight:179 lbs. / 81.6 kg.
Earnings: $104,367,619 ($625,688*)
For Gary Payton II, it’s NBA superstar father, like NBA son when it comes to playing basketball. But in terms of the Golden State Warriors guard’s unique athleticism, quickness and highlight-reel dunks, it’s actually like mother, like son. “It’s got to be Monique,” Payton II told The Undefeated. “So if it’s not Monique, I’d be surprised if it’s Gary. I doubt it, though. In Monique’s background, she was running track, doing high jump, long jump, it just makes sense. And she used to always tell me she was the most athletic in her class. So I’m going to take her word for it. It’s truly Monique.”
Sirius XM NBA: “He’s just going to work with it.” Hall of Famer and #NBA75 member Gary Payton tells @TermineRadio & @Eddie Johnson about a recent conversation he had with Damian Lillard regarding his frustrations in Portland. pic.twitter.com/3I0qo2SNWH
Kenny Smith once mentioned on “Inside the NBA” on TNT that having played Payton a few times in the postseason, Payton talked as much trash to his own teammates — if not more — as opposed to his opponents. Payton would scream to get him the ball because he couldn’t be guarded by his assignment. He yapped in practice to help drive home the points and the game plans of his coaches. He also did it to motivate himself to perform on a nightly basis. There was a madness to the tornado of words that ravaged the eardrums of those in front of him. “It made you want to get back at him even more,” Hall of Fame forward Chris Mullin once said about Payton, “but ultimately, the real frustration came from how great a player he was. Backing it up, that’s when trash-talking goes to another level. If you trash talk and you can’t back it up, you’re just a clown.”
“I played with GP, and I played against GP,” Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal said about Payton when naming him the best trash talker on an episode of “Open Run” on NBA TV years ago. “He just didn’t care. The crazy thing about GP on the court is he was like that off the court. If he saw you in the mall: ‘Remember that time I crossed you up, big fella? And I gave you that thang with the left hand? And you went up to get it and almost pulled your arm out of your socket? I’m a Hall of Famer! I’m first ballot, boy!’”
The Warriors guard had a dad who was a defensive guru, and it earned him one of the best nicknames ever, The Glove. Just how Stephen Curry’s dad was a three-point specialist and taught him everything he knew about the art of shooting, you would imagine Payton II’s father did the same with him when it came to defense. “To be honest, we really don’t talk about defense…I wasn’t offensively gifted like he was, so I had to do it on the defensive end. I made sure I was great at defense, and it’s led to steals dunks, and that’s how I got my offense going,” Payton II tells ClutchPoints.
Mark Haynes: GP2 on talking defense with his dad: “To be honest, we really don’t talk about defense…I wasn’t offensively gifted like he was, so I had to do it on the defensive end. I made sure I was great at defense, and it’s led to steals dunks, and that’s how I got my offense going.”
