Oklahoma City Thunder: Top 10 NBA Draft picks in franchise history

3. Gary Payton (PG) — No. 2 pick in 1990 NBA Draft

Career stats (with the Sonics):  999 GP, 18.2 PPG, 7.4 APG, 4.2 RPG, 72.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 46.9 FG%, 32.1 3P%, 72.6 FT%

The year after drafting Shawn Kemp, the Sonics would take Gary Payton with the second overall pick out of Oregon State University.

Payton would go on to be a Hall-of-Famer, nine-time All-Star, nine-time All-NBA selection, nine-time All-Defensive player, the 1995-96 Defensive Player of the Year, and a 1990-91 All-Rookie player.

Payton played 12 and a half seasons for Seattle. He was able to lead them to the playoffs in his first eight years, including reaching the NBA Finals in 1996.

Combined with Shawn Kemp, the Seattle SuperSonics were a force in the 90s. Had they not met an even greater force in Michael Jordan, who returned to the NBA, they would probably have won a championship.

Payton was nicknamed The Glove for his lockdown defense. He is the only point guard except for Sidney Moncrief that was able to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Since Payton, there hasn’t been a point guard that has won the award yet. Opposing point guards would have problems bringing the ball up past their own backcourt.

He is fourth in career steals with 2,445. He was able to score too though, boasting three seasons where he was in the top 10 in points per game: 1996-97 (10th), 1998-99 (sixth) and 1999-00 (seventh).

In fact, Gary Payton is the only player that has scored 20,000 or more points with more than 2,000 steals. Payton and LeBron James are the only players with 20,000 or more points and 8,000 or more assists.

The Glove is eighth all-time in total assists with 8,966. Payton was an all-around threat that dominated every aspect of the game.