How tall is Gary Payton

Gary Dwayne Payton (born July 23, 1968) is an American former professional basketball artiste who played the point guard position. Widely considered one of the greatest lessening guards of everything time, he is best known for his 13-year tenure behind the Seattle SuperSonics, where he holds franchise history in assists and steals. He next played taking into account the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat. Payton won an NBA championship past the Heat in 2006. Nicknamed “the Glove” for his defensive abilities, Payton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. In October 2021, Payton was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

Payton is the first point guard to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, and the isolated point guard winner in the award’s first 39 years, until Marcus Smart was chosen in 2022. He was agreed to the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times, an NBA record he shares gone Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant. He was plus a nine-time NBA All-Star and a nine-time All-NBA Team member. Payton was called “probably as total a guard as there ever was” by Basketball Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich.

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Payton played high school basketball at Skyline High School, along afterward former NBA performer Greg Foster, and headed north in 1986 to attend Oregon State University in Corvallis. At one point, he wanted to attend The University of Texas at El Paso, but Don Haskins highly developed rescinded his present after Payton was deciding between UTEP and St. John’s. In his sophomore year of high school, his grades plummeted and he was acknowledged academically ineligible. His father encouraged him to focus upon school, and he was allowed to fake again. Throughout his four-year career at Oregon State, he became one of the most festooned basketball players in school history.

During his senior season in 1989–90, Payton was featured in the lid story of Sports Illustrated on March 5 as the nation’s best school basketball player. He was a consensus All-American, a three-time All-Pac-10 selection, and both the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and conference Freshman of the Year in 1987. He was the MVP of the Far West Classic tournament three times, the Pac-10 Player of the Week nine times, and named to the Pac-10’s All-Decade Team. At the mature of his graduation, Payton held the instructor record for points, field goals, three-point dome goals, assists, and steals – all of which he still holds today except for career points and three-point field goals. During his career at OSU, the Beavers made three NCAA tournament appearances and one NIT appearance. He was elected into OSU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Payton was the second overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. In his third career game, Payton recorded his first double-double of his career after recording 13 points and 10 assists in a road win exceeding the Nuggets. On February 23, 1991, Payton recorded his first career triple-double after recording 18 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in a losing effort to the Suns. The once game, Payton scored isolated 2 points but dished out 16 assists, a subsequently career-high for him. He associated Slick Watts and Nate McMillan as the abandoned SuperSonics’ players to have dished out 16 or more assists in his rookie season. Throughout his rookie campaign, Payton recorded 8 point-assist double-doubles, the most by any SuperSonics’ player in history. His average for his rookie season is 7.2 points per game, 3.0 rebounds per game, 6.4 assists per game, and 2.0 steals per game.