Gary Payton used to bad-mouth even his own son, Gary Payton II that he was not good basketball player
Former Seattle Supersonics and Miami Heat point guard Gary Payton didn’t think his son was good at basketball.
Like most children of other star athletes, Gary Payton II was under pressure to become a good enough basketball player to carry on his father’s legacy.
But unlike others, this pressure didn’t originate from society’s expectations, but instead came directly from the Supersonics legend.
In addition to being arguably the best two-way point guard in basketball history, The Glove, a member of the 9x All-Star and 9x All-Defensive First Team (NBA record), was also a known trash talker in the NBA.
And it seems that he could not leave that habit behind while returning home.
Gary Payton used to bad-mouth even his own son, Gary Payton II
Gary Payton II was not a star basketball player in high school and played all sports. His father gave him a hard time about it and even threatened to not pay for college, telling him to find a job to pay for it himself. But on top of that, he literally put him down 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 show. Truth and Basketball Podcast.
“He told me I was a sorry-ass basketball player.”
So Gary Payton II decided to spite Big Gary.
The end result is the son being more like his father than he ever imagined, @ThompsonScribe writes.https://t.co/b904ptO7iN pic.twitter.com/qLIDINLtoK
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) April 15, 2022
He added: “Ha, he told me I was a basketball player who was sorry like *… And he told me to find a job or get a scholarship because he wasn’t going to pay me to go to school.
”
Wow! From that to being a proud father whose son, while struggling to go from being an undrafted player in 2016 to becoming a major player for the Golden State Warriors, won an NBA championship in 2022.
Although Payton senior was a player on a whole different level, his son’s previous championship success, while winning his only title in his decline, must have made him even more proud.
The NBA’s first DPOY point guard of the night thinks his son’s athleticism doesn’t come from him, but he can surely take credit for the Blazers guard’s strong defensive play.
Maybe it’s his genes or his trash talk.
Gary Payton II never backs down from any challenge in basketball, whether he’s facing guards or 7-footers.
