Gary Payton II: “no bad blood” w/ Dillon Brooks, “it’s playoff basketball”

+elbow “going to take time”, getting his degree, more notes/quotes/video

Gary Payton II took the podium after Steve Kerr today. The video above is clickable. The notes & quotes are below 👇

DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters. I used to transcribe every interview but it became too tedious and not worth the investment for the small amount of views we got on the soundbites on YouTube. The links to the tweets are not available because sometimes I don’t use the full tweet and just having a ton of tweets on this website imo isn’t aesthetically pleasing and gets away from the main goal: transferring information (not so much entertainment) asap.

GARY

• Gary Payton II calls Dillon Brooks' Flagrant 2 foul that played a role in him fracturing his left elbow an “NBA playoff foul…It is what it is…Just didn't catch myself. And then you know, things happen. But it's past me, behind me.” Payton is emphasizing that the one thing he needs to get back on the court is time. Says he's feeling better, but isn't putting any date on a possible return. He’s not doing basketball drills right now, but he is keeping up with strength and conditioning. (Dalton Johnson, Kendra Andrews, Kerith Burke)

• On when he first got injured: “I thought I just hyper-extended it a little bit. ... I shot the free throws so I could be able to come back into the game. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to.” (Connor Letourneau)

• On dealing with much worse in his career than missing 3-5 weeks with a broken elbow. He says it's something you just get past: “Take the punches, continue to get better, keep my body ready and then come back.” (Kylen Mills)

• On how his elbow feels: “We're getting better every day. It's feeling better every day. But it's going to take time, and we're not trying to put a date on when I can or when I can't or whatever. So just taking it one day at a time.” (Mark Haynes)

• On how Dillon Brooks reached out to GPII to apologize: “Yeah, we talked. It's all good. It's a basketball play. I know he didn't mean it, but no hard feelings, no bad blood. It's all good. It's playoff basketball.” (Letourneau, Haynes)

• On Steph Curry’s Davidson graduation, Gary Payton II says he’s actually in his last semester at Oregon State right now. GPII is expecting to finish up this year and earn his degree. Said one silver lining to his injury is he has more time to work on papers, etc. “(Mom) Monique wanted the papers so I’ll get her the paper.” (Mills, Letourneau)

👍👍💛💙