Essay, Research Paper: Gary Payton

1996-1997 defensive player of the year, All NBA second team, and All-Defensive First Team. The Glove. Gary Payton was born on July 23 1968, in Oakland, California. He has been playing the guard position for the Seattle Supersonics. He attended college at Oregon State. He was named one of the All-America first Team as a senior in 1990. Sports Illustrated named him the Player of the year the same year and the pac-10 player of the year. He was the all-time leading scorer at Oregon State with 2,172 points and an average of about 18 points per game.
When it was time for the Draft, Gary wasn't waiting long for someone to pick him. Derrick Coleman was picked first and then Gary was picked by the Supersonics. He started all 82 games as a rookie. He finished the year ranked 12th in assists and 20th in steals and outranking all the rookies in both categories.
All of his stats improved in the rest of the years. In the 1995-96 season he took his third trip to the NBA All-Star Classic. Most of his stats were up to Career highs. He was now one of the worst threats beyond the three point line. He lead the Sonics along with Shawn Kemp to the second best regular season record of 64 wins and 18 losses. By the end of that year he was the leader in steals with 2.85 per game, ranked 10th in assists with 7.5 assists per game, 10th for total minutes, and 12th in minutes averaged per game. Without any serious injuries or being sick her has been able to be in every game but 2, he has played in 490 out of the 492 regular season games.
Other than scoring, he has great durability and is a great passer. He is known for the best defensive guard playing right now. Gary took it one step further in 1996 when he was selected the NBA's Defensive player of the year. He is only the fifth guard to ever achieve it.
s a member of the USA World Championship Qualifying team that qualified the United states for the 1990 World Championship. When he was a sophomore in college he participated in the 1988 Olympic Team Trials participant but did not make the U.S. squad.
Besides being a great basketball player he is also a great person too. He hosts an All-star Classic charity basketball game to raise money for Big Brothers of King county, that is a charity if you wanted to know. He helps mostly charities that help children or the homeless and he also contributes to the March of Dimes.
His favorite player when he was growing up was George Gervin. Right now his favorite sports figure that he admires the most is Ken Griffey Jr.
When he is done playing in the NBA he wants to own or manage a sports bar or restaurant.
Recently Gary Payton has gotten married. He married Monique James on July 26th. She has been his longtime fiancee. They had it in San Francisco. Many other NBA celebrities were invited to attend the wedding. Many didn't though because of all they media and newspapers that were going to be there. Nate McMillan was the groomsman. He also plays guard for the supersonics. Shawn Kemp didn't attend the wedding which made a big story. The reason he didn't is because he wanted t avoid any meetings with the sonics management. I think he didn't really like any of the owners. he has been creating some chaos around the sonics lately. What do you think happened, He got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers a few weeks ago. a lot of Gary's friends thought it was a great disappointment that he wasn't there. Some of the people that attended the wedding are; teammates Greg Graham and Jim McIlvaine, ; other NBA players Mitch Richmond, Brian Shaw, Sharef Abdur-Rahim, Eddie Johnson, and Jason Kidd.

Gar's favorite hobby is pool. I'm sure he has a pool table at his house.
He has been in many television productions. His big screen debut was in the movie Eddie. He appeared in the Television show Hangin with Mr. Cooper with Tim Hardaway. He has his own line of clothing called glovewear. He recorded a rap single called Livin' Legal and Large. His favorite TV show is Martin and his favorite movie is Eraser. Gary's best friend in the NBA is Brian Shaw even though their teams are very far apart. He has many pets. He only has fish though, but he has many different fish tanks in his house. he has two children. Their names are Raguel and Gary Jr.