NBA players who also had kids play in the league: Gary Payton/Gary Payton II
Gary “The Glove” Payton is one of the best point guards and one of the best two-way players of all-time. He was a smart, physical, and menacing defender and was known to trash-talk and taunt his opponents.
He’s a nine-time All-Star, made nine All-NBA teams, and was named to the All-Defensive first-team nine consecutive times from 1994-2002.
Payton holds Seattle Supersonics/OKC Thunder franchise records in assists (7,384), steals (2,107), games played (999), minutes played (36,858), field goals made (7,292), and win shares (123.8), and he’s second behind Russell Westbrook in points (18,207).
In 1996 Payton became the first point guard in league history to be named the Defensive Player of the Year, and he was the last guard to win that award. That same year he made his first NBA Finals appearance, losing in six games to the Chicago Bulls, despite his stellar defense on Michael Jordan.
Payton would lose in the Finals again in 2004, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2006, after joining the Miami Heat as a free agent, he finally captured the championship that had eluded him for 15 years.
He’s also a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning in 1996 and 2000, representing the United States. Payton was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 2013 class.
His son, Gary Payton II, hasn’t experienced the same type of success as his father. The two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year went undrafted in 2016. While he’s had brief stints with the Milwaukee Bucks, Lakers, and most recently the Washington Wizards, Payton has spent most of his career in the G-League trying to prove he deserves to be an NBA mainstay. He currently plays for the Toronto Raptors G-League affiliate, the Raptors 905.