Like most fathers, Gary Payton wanted his son to be like him. But not only did he just want his namesake son to follow in his footsteps and become a professional basketball player, he wanted him to be the same player he was in the NBA.
But living up to his father’s name was like mission impossible for Gary II. His father was a nine-time NBA All-Star, nine-time All-NBA team selection, nine-time All-Defensive first team member, the 1996 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team.
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Trying to dictate GP2’s early basketball career caused a rift between father and son that almost derailed the younger Payton’s basketball career. Ultimately, Gary Sr. realized that for his son to realize his full potential, he had to let him be himself.
“At the first time that I was thinking of myself, how I played, and I wanted him to play that way. Y’all gotta understand man, there is only one Gary Payton, and that’s me. I just named my son after me, that’s it,” he said. “So I told my son ‘Look here man, I know you mad at me.’ We got into a situation where our relationship wasn’t really cool because of that.”
Gary didn’t think GP2 would go to Oregon State
According to the elder Payton, he tried to discourage GP2 the way his father did him. Early on, it looked like the pressure of living up to his name caught up with Gary II. However, by his junior year in HS, “The Young Glove” decided that he wasn’t going to listen to the noise and was going to play his own game.
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After high school, GP2 wanted to enroll at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. However, his dad took him to Oregon State, where he once starred. At first, Gary thought his son would not take the challenge. But he did, and that was when the old man realized that his kid was no longer intimidated by his reputation.
“When he made that decision to go to Oregon State behind me, that was a big deal for me because I really didn’t think that he was going to do that. So I tell him all the time, I said ‘Look here, Don’t never think that you gotta be like me. It ain’t going to work that way.’ I said ‘If you want to be like, be anything with me, just get your picture up a side of me. And let us be two legends together.”
The best thing about GP2 isn’t even related to basketball
GP2’s number isn’t retired by OSU like his dad’s is. Unlike his father, who was the No.2 pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, his son took a longer route to the NBA after being undrafted in 2016. But while he hasn’t been as good as his dad in the NBA, he’s played nine seasons in the association and is coming off the second-best scoring year of his career in Golden State. That’s impressive but it’s not what makes Gary Sr. the proudest.
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“The best thing I like about my kid is that when people come up to me, they don’t talk about basketball. They talk about how good of a person he is, and how sweet he is. That makes a dad feel better because I know I did what I had to do as a parent,” he added.
Like all NBA dads, Gary was away most of the time because of his basketball career. But hearing people say nice things about GP2 as a person—”The Glove” says that’s the best feeling for any father—and it’s not even basketball-related.