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Kevin Durant Joyfully Breaks Down Trash-Talking Banter With Gary Payton Sr.

Payton, a legendary trash talker, and Durant, no slouch himself, traded barbs in the middle of the Suns-Warriors game.

Tim Capurso

Durant and Payton (upper right corner) exchange words during the Suns-Warriors game.
Durant and Payton (upper right corner) exchange words during the Suns-Warriors game. / Screengrab YouTube @nbaonespn
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On the court, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton Sr. was a legendary trash talker. Off the court in his post-playing days, it appears nothing has changed.

Payton Sr. was in attendance at the Chase Center to watch his son, Gary Payton II, play for the Golden State Warriors against the Phoenix Suns, and engaged in an animated back-and-forth with Suns superstar forward Kevin Durant. Payton Sr. would later describe the exchange to ESPN's Jorge Sedano as "talking junk."

After the game, Durant, no stranger to trash talk himself, said it was "all love" towards Payton while explaining to reporters that the exchange with Payton was a continuation of one they had this past summer when Durant was with USA Basketball in preparation for the Olympics.

"It's always good when I run into an older player, especially if they played in the '90s, because they feel like that's the golden years of the NBA," Durant said after the game, via John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. "So I try to let them know, especially GP, I try to let them know what it would have been like if they'd have been on the court with me. They tend to talk down on the mentality of our era's players."

"G's a great sport about it—one of my favorite players, somebody I look up to, got major respect for. I think this started in the summer with Team USA. We were all in the same room with Team USA, and the first thing I said to him was that he couldn't guard me. 'You're too small. Them dudes that played back in the day wasn't close to me.' I was just talking crazy to him, so I guess we picked it up from there."

And as for what Durant told Payton during their animated exchange?

"We're going right into that post," Durant told reporters he said to Payton. "He's too small, man. [Payton is] 6-4, not really physical like that. He's just too small for me. And he knows that. But GP is one of those players, you're not going to get the last word on him."

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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.

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