Warriors’ Gary Payton II On How Steph Curry Remains Elite And Why He’s Investing In SUPLMNT
March 4, 2025
Gary Payton II knows first hand just how good Stephen Curry is as he nears the age of 37.
The veteran guard is in the midst of his second stint with the Warriors and has already won a championship with the greatest three-point shooter ever. He’s in the midst of his fifth season with Curry, where the 16th-year guard remains as good as he’s ever been. Curry is averaging a team-leading 24.1 points per game on a league-high 93.3% efficiency from the charity stripe.
Entering Monday night’s win over the Charlotte Hornets, Curry ranked third in the NBA in total treys (230) despite missing nine games. He leads the NBA with 4.4 treys per game. Speaking just before Curry’s 56-point outburst in a come-from-behind win over the Orlando Magic last Thursday, Payton II says the four-time NBA champ has “a lot left in the tank.”
”He definitely doesn’t play his age,” says Payton II in a one-on-one interview. “He still has a lot left in the tank. Being able to match up, go against him in practice — we don’t scrimmage too often — but when we do, me and him go at it. It’s just crazy, I’ve learned so much from him.”
Curry is coming off of a summer in which he hit arguably the biggest shot of his career in Team USA’s 98-87 victory over France in the gold medal game. The shot — nicknamed the “Golden Dagger” — was the eighth and final three-pointer that Curry hit in the Olympic final, with four of those eight shots occuring in the final three minutes of the game.
It was only as recently as last season that Curry led the league in treys as he won the Clutch Player of the Year award and was named an All-Star for the 11th time in his career.
Curry and Draymond Green remain a dynamic duo as they enter their 13th season together, something that Payton makes sure to mention.
”The dynamic duo of him and Draymond, is unmatched, untouched” says Payton II. “You can’t really put a word to it. They’ve been together so long, they understand each other so well. It’s just like riding a bike for them too. I can’t even explain it. It’s happy to be on this side of it.”
After starting out the 2024-25 season hot at a 12-3 record, Golden State fizzled prior to their trade deadline acquisition of six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler. They were 25-26 prior to acquiring Butler. However, the team has suddenly emerged as a Western Conference contender with the addition of Butler, who led the Miami Heat to two NBA Finals appearances over the past five years.
Following their win over the Hornets, the Warriors are now 33-28 and in sixth place in the Western Conference. Golden State is now 8-1 with Butler in the lineup.
”Jimmy’s been a great addition since the break,” says Payton II. “Getting back to being simple, not trying to do too much. We just had to come back off outta the break and simplify things. Jimmy’s a great mixture of that. He picked up playing with Steph and Draymond quickly.”
Since Butler’s acquisition, the Warriors rank third in offensive rating and defensive rating. For perspective, they ranked 18th in offensive rating and 10th in defensive rating prior to the trade.
”Everybody sees that, the rest of the guys just follow those three guys,” says Payton II of Butler, Curry and Green. “Get back to what we were doing, which is unselfish play. Take care of the ball, getting stops. I think if we get stops, nobody can really do anything with us offensively. We just have take care of the ball, get stops, do it together, and just keep it simple.”
Gary Payton II Invests In Black-Owned Water Brand SUPLMNT
The 32-year-old veteran is speaking on behalf of his investment of SUPLMNT, a Black-owned premium water brand. Payton II — son of Hall of Fame guard and defensive stalwart Gary Payton — is the first notable athlete to invest in the water brand, which began in 2020.
The brand — which was founded by Jairus Morris — has seen increased visibility recently, with Payton II’s teammate, Curry, seen drinking water bottles from SUPLMNT.
Payton II details how he started investing in the brand after he was introduced to it by his manager, Langston Morris-Walker.
”Langston had brought SUPLMNT to me, sent me a couple bottles,” says Payton II. “I messed around with IT for a week or so. Ever since then, it’s just been a part of my daily routine. It was something that we both thought would fit into my schedule, his schedule and mine and his lifestyle.”
Payton II began investing in the past couple of months, with his involvement being announced in February. The veteran guard details why he was tempted to partner with SUPLMNT.
”We thought this would be a great opportunity to put the culture on the hydration wave and continue to keep pushing for health and wellness not as athletes — for African Americans and the culture,” says Payton II. “We threw the fashion piece along with it with SUPLMNT, we sat down and we spoke with Jarius and it was a good fit. Since then, we’ve been definitely pushing at a high level just for hydration for the culture.”
Morris explains why it’s such a big deal to have Payton II involved with the brand, which is a “breath of fresh air” from a “visibility standpoint,” says the founder.
”This is our first guy,” says Morris. “We wanted to kind of be strategic on investments. So people that could partner with us would actually help and believe in the brand and push it forward. Us finding Gary was more like a unicorn type of situation. Just somebody that the brand kind of fits into his regular everyday schedule.”
Morris further details why it’s important that SUPLMNT is a Black-owned brand, mentioning that there’s really no other Black-owned brands in the business.
”He (Payton II) believes in it and it’s a category that’s just really non-existent in the black culture,” says Morris. “There’s no other Black-owned brands. There’s no other brands that even approach water bottles in this way. in a fashion, hydration pushing kind of way. This is just a partnership, a match made in heaven type of thing.”
The founder of SUPLMNT further explains that one of the objectives is for the NBA to use the brand as the bottle of the league. Star players such as Curry using SUPLMNT will only further help the popularity of the brand.
Morris says SUPLMNT wants to one day emerge as the “best and biggest water bottle brand in the country.”
”It just speaks to the quality and the vibe of the brand that people as high as Steph Curry is concerned, he’s willing to rock with the brand,” says Morris. “We’re real confident that as we start to get more visibility, the whole entire NBA is going to adopt it as the bottle that they want to be using and something that could push the culture forward.”
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