Gary Payton
Teams
Seattle SuperSonics - 1990-03
Milwaukee Bucks - 2003
Los Angeles Lakers - 2003-04
Boston Celtics - 2004-05
Miami Heat - 2005-07
Playoffs
Appearances - 15 (1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,2000,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007)
Conference Finals - 4 (1993,1996,2004,2006)
NBA Finals - 3 (1996,2004,2006)
Championships - 1 (2006)
Awards and Honors
All-NBA First Team - 2 (1998,1999,2000,2002)
All-NBA Second Team - 5 (1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2001,2002)
All-NBA Third Team - 2 (1994,2001,2003)
Defensive Player of the Year - 1 (1996)
Hall of Fame - 2013
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Total Steals - #4
Total Assists - #10
Steals Per Game - #29
Assists Per Game - #32
Total Points - #40
Three-Pointers Made - #91
League Leads
Total Steals (#1-1996, #2-1995, #3-1997,1998,2000, #4-1993)
Total Assists (#1-2000, #2-2003, #3-1999,2002, #5-1998)
Assists Per Game (#3-2002,2003, #4-1999,2000, #5-2001)
Steals Per Game (#1-1996, #3-1995,1997, #4-1998)
Total Points (#5-1999,2000)
Three-Pointers Made (#1-2000)
Gary Payton played 4 years of college basketball at Oregon State, where he set nearly every school record, and averaged 25.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 8.1 assists, and 3.4 steals during his senior season, which led the Seattle SuperSonics to draft him #2 overall in the 1990 Draft.
Payton wasn't a great scorer right away, scoring only 7.2 per game as a rookie, but he averaged 6.2 assists and 2.0 steals that year, so his other skills were already NBA-ready. He improved over the next couple of years, raising his scoring average to 13.5 per game in his third season, and he helped the Sonics reach the Conference Finals that year, where the team fell to Phoenix in 7 games, but Payton earned his nickname "the Glove" for his tough defense during the series.
The next year, Payton was named to the All-Defensive First Team for the first time, an honor he would receive in each of the next 8 seasons as well, tying him for the record for most appearances on that list with 9. He also made the All-NBA Third Team that year, the first of 9 straight seasons he would be named to one of the All-NBA teams.
In 1995-96, he led the league in steals with 2.9 per game and was named the Defensive Player of the Year, and is still the only point guard to ever win the award. He also averaged 19.3 points and 7.5 assists that year, and Seattle finished with the best record in the West, then went all the way to the NBA Finals, where they faced the Chicago Bulls. Payton guarded Michael Jordan during that series, and Jordan averaged only 27.3 points per game, the lowest he would ever average in the Finals, but the Sonics would still lose in 6 games.
The Sonics were not able to repeat that level of success over the next several years, but Payton continued to improve each year, having his best individual season in 1999-00, when he averaged career-highs of 24.2 points and 6.5 rebounds, along with 8.9 assists, which was his best at the time as well, and he was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second time in 3 seasons.
Payton had two more great individual seasons with Seattle, but the team continued to struggle, and Payton did not get along with the team's new owner, who decided to trade his star, sending him to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2003 in exchange for Ray Allen. He finished out the season with the Bucks, then left as a free agent in search of a championship.
He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, joining Kobe, Shaq, and Karl Malone on a superteam, and Payton was the only one of the stars to play in every game. They reached the NBA Finals as expected, but were upset by the Pistons in 5 games, with Payton averaging only 4.2 points per game in the series. He was traded to the Boston Celtics after the season.
Payton's averages had started to drop off, and he was traded at the deadline to the Atlanta Hawks for Antoine Walker, but the Hawks waived him later that week, and he then resigned with the Celtics to finish out the season, but that season ended in another first-round playoff disappointment.
He signed with the Miami Heat for the next season, playing as a backup for the first time in his career, and averaged only 7.7 points per game, his lowest since his rookie year. That team, led by Dwyane Wade and Shaq, were able to reach the NBA Finals, and this time Payton finally won his title, though he had little to do with it, scoring only 2.7 points per game in the Finals. He played one more season with Miami before retiring from the game.
Payton was one of the best defensive guards of all time, and was always a good passer, making him a perfect point guard. As his career went on, he became a very good scorer as well, scoring over 20 points per game 7 times as well. He also rarely missed a game, missing only 11 games in his first 16 seasons, with 3 of those happening because he had been traded and hadn't arrived with his new team yet. He only reached the NBA Finals once during his prime years, and didn't win a title until he was well past his prime, but he is still one of the greatest to ever play the game.
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