Warriors' GP2 not defined by name, but through story inked on his body originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
HOUSTON – The modern NBA is a search for 3-and-D players, combining someone’s ability to possess the size of a wing who can lock up defensively and be a knock-down shooter from long distance. Really, the league is littered with specialists.
Rim protectors. Lob threats. Energizers. Sharpshooters, bench buckets, and defensive pests. It’s all about knowing your role.
Jamal Crawford carved out a career that spanned two decades of coming off the bench and scoring at will, earning him three Sixth Man of the Year awards. Gary Payton II is the opposite for the Warriors.
If a team has someone on a heater, coach Steve Kerr knows Payton can take off his warmup gear, toss a player in the freezer and shift the game in the Warriors’ favor.
In the same mold as his father, Payton was a two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, but he also averaged 14.3 points in his two years at Oregon State with the ball in his hands and was given scoring duties throughout his time in the G League. Teams couldn’t find the right fit for Payton, until he finally broke through in his age-29 season with the Warriors in their 2021-22 NBA championship campaign as a puzzling player who doesn’t fit the mold of his size.
“Teams are going to live with me taking shots and for me to try to beat them,” Payton tells NBC Sports Bay Area. “If I can help out with 10, 15 points each game and get Steph [Curry] and Jimmy [Butler] their points, that’s just another thing you have to worry about.”
Payton’s shot evaporated into the ether to begin the 2024-25 NBA season, making only five of his 32 3-point attempts (15.6 percent) from opening night through the Warriors’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas. He then missed the Warriors’ next 10 games to injury, but his left hand found the magic touch, shooting 41.3 percent on threes (26 of 63) the rest of the regular season in 34 games.
He’s listed at 6-foot-2, but has a 6-foot-8 wingspan and cosplays as Doc Ock with arms growing every which way to cause other teams nightmares. He’s a point guard defensively and a power forward offensively, sneaking behind on the baseline and dunking on the heads of 7-footers.
Kerr in his 15-year playing career and 11 years as the Warriors’ coach has seen every type of player. He only has witnessed the complexity of one GP2. There is no comparison.
“Nobody. I’ve never seen a player like Gary,” Kerr says.
Payton’s story could have been written in nepotism as yet another son of a former NBA star and Hall of Famer. Payton could have let his namesake define him. Really, his story is written in ink all over his body, a plethora of characters representing different steps of triumphs and tribulations for the 32-year-old.
Lilies on the front side of his left shoulder in honor of his mother, Monique, were Payton’s first tattoo at 18 years old. Now, he’s covered in tats everywhere, but it’s the wide range of people that stand out most.
There’s Gandhi and Bob Marley, but also characters like Heath Ledger’s Joker, Neytiri from Avatar and comic book character Hellboy.
The Gandhi tattoo stems from a period in Payton’s life where he had to find a calmness with his journey and embrace mindfulness in adversity, not trying to fight and rush life’s process but to be at peace with it. Putting Marley on his body was a similar reminder that as his own lyrics go, everything is going to be all right.
When Payton left the Warriors to sign a bigger contract with the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer of 2022, he entered unfamiliar terrain, which sparked his motivation to get the Avatar tattoo. Hellboy is a “be-you tattoo,” Payton says, staying in the shadows but being himself to shine a light on who he has become.
Of all his tattoos, though, which one explains who Payton the basketball player is?
The choice wasn’t intentional. The meaning wasn’t about basketball, but after a quick pause, Payton has his answer.
“I got Davy Jones on my shoulder, Captain Davy Jones,” he says. “Davy, he’s got two sides to him – night and day. When he comes out with his crew, he’s a captain. He’s a leader, for sure. He sets the tone for the crew and everything they’re trying to get done. Captain Davy Jones would probably be that on-court one.”
But Payton’s most meaningful tattoo is one of his smaller ones: A Golden Snitch on the back of his neck.
Think about it. Payton was born to be a Seeker in the world of “Harry Potter,” zooming past his competition with eyes on the prize, never losing sight of what it takes to win. Just like him coming out of nowhere for a game-breaking steal on the hardwood, Payton can close his eyes and see himself flying through the air, snatching the Golden Snitch and hearing his chosen house cheer in victory.
He even added a Sirius Black tattoo last summer, and went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Payton couldn’t decide on a broom then, but will have one hanging in his house soon enough.
“Having that determination and that motive to lock in,” Payton says of his Golden Snitch tattoo. “You got to squint – you may see it, you may not. It’s just like, you may see the end of the road and you may not. You just got to push and keep going.”
All this sounds like someone who should be draped in the scarlet red and gold of Gryffindor. Again, never put Payton in a box. He’s a Slytherin, he says, and even has a Lord Voldemort tattoo on the backside of his left shoulder.
“They’re not all a–holes,” he reminds me. “There’s some cool ones. There’s Snape. You thought you knew Snape, but Snape was solid.”
It’s the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ NBA play-in tournament game last week and they’re down by one point with seven minutes left. Jimmy Butler gets fouled by Scotty Pippen Jr. to take his 17th and 18th free throws of the game, making both and putting the Warriors ahead by one point. Before getting the ball at the charity stripe, Payton shows why Warriors fans have adored him over the years.
Off the court he’s an advocate for dyslexia as someone who has dealt with it as well. Payton also invested in and partnered with SUPLMNT, a Black-owned water bottle brand that focuses on hydration being part of the culture. He can’t hop on a board anymore, but Payton has a big part in the Skateboard Association (SBA) launching this summer. True to himself, his story is written in only ways he knows how.
On the court, he’s menace for the team across from him and a lovable figure to those who root for him. As Butler heads to the free-throw line, Payton tosses the ball back and forth with an older woman whose short, nearly translucent white hair shimmers off the Chase Center lights. Her smile is seen from press row high above her, giving the crowd a lighthearted moment while the scene calls for heart-pumping stress and anxiety.
As someone who grew up around the game and NBA arenas, Payton learned at a young age how far those gestures can go for fans who use their money to watch people play a game. The players, the fans and everybody in the building need a lesson in joy, and Payton is happy to provide it.
“I told myself if I ever got in a position to be able to do that, just to give back that moment, I know how far that goes, especially for a fan – how long and how far those moments go,” Payton says.
Nothing will make him happier than a second championship parade. That means more ink, too. Payton got a tattoo of himself flexing from the 2022 NBA Finals on the back of his left leg, and already has an idea of a trophy if the Warriors can complete the mission this year. Another ring also would give him the bragging rights he always dreamed of.
He and his father both are one-time NBA champions, for now. The original Gary Payton can have a closet full of accolades, but that isn’t going to deter his son from smack-talking one of the game’s greatest wordsmiths.
“Overall basketball player, I’m better for sure,” Payton says. “You can have your Hall of Fame. Yeah, you’re good. You got the numbers. You’re cool. Overall, I’m the better basketball player.”
His story could have ended how it began, being defined by a name. That’s not Gary Payton II. Every day his tale is told his own way, through tattoos and grinning at the game of life and basketball, one day at a time.
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