"He was soft. He was really soft [in high school]," Payton told SB Nation. "I told him, I just told my son straight up -- I don't like your game. I don't think you're good enough to play at the next level or any level. I don't have to waste my time coming here."
"I didn't know how to handle it with him in my ear," Payton II said. "It really got to me. Just playing in high school, he used to be there yelling and screaming. I broke down and really got off my game. I didn't want to play."
"Growing up it's kinda tough to follow in the footsteps of a legend," Payton II told SB Nation. "When your dad is a Hall of Famer, you know they expect you to be great instantly -- just pick up those genes and follow behind that. I kinda shaded away from that."
"When he got here [OSU] people said, 'He's a gamer,'" Tinkle said. "He's not going to give you all you want in practice but come game time he'll be ready to go. He's changed that now. He's bringing the energy and game-type intensity to practice every day."
"Gary II is every bit as competitive as his father. He just has a different personality."
Oregon State finished 17-14, which surprised even Tinkle himself. For the Paytons, there was no doubt bigger things were waiting this season. Bolstered by a strong recruiting class led by Tres Tinkle, son of the head coach, and Stephen Thompson Jr., son of an Oregon State assistant, Payton II knew reinforcements were on the way. Now he had to take his game to the next level.
To do that, Gary Payton took his son the place he knows best: Oakland.
"This was probably his hardest summer," Payton said. "I took him away from a lot of things. Gary usually wants to be around his friends in Vegas. I had him come here by himself. Just me and him."
Payton Sr. stressed the importance of individual workouts, rather than the friendly, group atmosphere many of today's players train under. When Payton II did go against other people, it wasn't his friends: his father helped recruit Oakland native Damian Lillard and Compton's DeMar DeRozan to show his son what the next level was going to be like.
"He's done it on his own and he's done it his own way," Payton said. "A lot of people are saying he's got big shoes to fill coming from the same school as his dad, but I told him at one point, make your own name. And that's what he's done. He's made Gary II his own thing.
"He's got his own style that a lot of people are recognizing. It's not what he can do like his father. Now it's what Gary II can do. And that's what I like."