Gary Payton Once Threatened to Pull Out a Gun on a Teammate

Seattle Supersonics legend Gary Payton was one of the best defensive players of his generation. He was simply known as ‘The Glove” because he’d locked down anyone he was guarding. Now we’re learning about an old story of Gary Payton that shows he was as passionate as they come.

According to an old New York Times‘ article via Brobible,  George Karl described the altercation between teammates.

When the Sonics opened the 1994 playoffs against Denver with expectations of rolling to the finals, Payton overtly snapped.

“Three years ago I didn’t see the first outbreak, but he and Ricky Pierce got into some kind of a discussion at halftime of the first Denver game, and they were threatening to get guns,” Karl said. “The players told me they had guns in their bags. It was, ‘I’ll kill your family.’ It was crazy. That was Game 1, and we won.” “There’s a lot of anger there, and a lot of stupid words are said,” Karl said. “So, the next day you’ve got to fix it. So, you’re fixing a lot. So, you’re putting the puzzle back together rather than building it.”

Somewhere, Gilbert Arenas is smiling about this story. https://t.co/wSeQ3YUfVm

— BroBible (@BroBible) April 19, 2021

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Gary Payton was a bad man.

Not sure how well he’d fare these days with all the touching restrictions.

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