College of Alameda’s (CoA) basketball program will be kicking off the upcoming fall season with a superstar acquisition coming off the bench.
Gary Payton, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and East Bay native, has been tapped to coach CoA’s men’s basketball team.
The community college’s president, Melanie Dixon, announced the hire in a report made public Friday evening.
In the written report, published with materials for Tuesday’s meeting of the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) Board of Trustees, Dixon welcomed Payton along with new volleyball coach Justin Hoover.
The two new additions “will no doubt drum up excitement on the Island,” Dixon stated in the report, referring to Alameda Island.
Most well known for his time as point guard for the Seattle Supersonics — who were later relocated and rebranded as the Oklahoma City Thunder — Payton is considered one of the great NBA icons of the ’90s. His reputation as one of the greatest defenders in league history earned him the nickname “the Glove.”
Payton’s roots are in Oakland, California, where he developed his passion for the sport with his father at their home on High Street. He later attended Skyline High School and various summer programs around the Bay Area.
Drafted second overall in the 1990 NBA draft from Oregon State to the Seattle Supersonics, Payton gathered numerous awards during his 17-year NBA career.
He won NBA Defensive Player of The Year in 1996 and is one of two point guards to ever win the award.
He holds a record of nine NBA All-Defensive first team selections, tying him with fellow Hall of Fame talents Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, and Kobe Bryant.
In 2006, Payton won his only NBA championship as a member of the Miami Heat, before retiring the following season in 2007.
Payton has spent his post retirement career well occupied, appearing as a guest on sports podcasts, getting involved in various business ventures, and engaging in community work across the Bay Area and internationally with the NBA.
He has also followed in his father‘s footsteps by pursuing a coaching career, most notably with the Big3 league with teams such as the 3 Headed Monsters and Bivouac.
Payton’s hiring at CoA comes after a tumultuous three year stint as head coach for Lincoln University, a private nonprofit university in Oakland.
His departure comes after making accusations against the university for inadequate funding and resources for players, according to an article by USA Today published in April.
The university hired Payton in 2021, as they were first establishing their athletics program. Lincoln’s tax records indicated that Payton was paid $112,500 in 2021, USA Today reported, and he received an additional $90,000 for the beginning of the 2022 season. For the following 18 months, he was not given pay as he was listed as a volunteer.
Payton told USA Today that the university canceled three trips, stopped payments for assistant coaches, and did not have the means to provide a consistent staff. He also said that he had to pay out of pocket to provide athletes with “team uniforms, shoes, and meals on the road.”
Lincoln President, Mikhail Brodsky, claimed that Payton’s spendings were a source of blame for a lack of insufficient funds, exemplified by a large number of personnel that would travel with him and the team.
Lincoln’s Athletics Director, Desmond Grumbs, told USA Today that the team did travel over the past three years, including out of state.
It’s not yet clear how much the NBA legend will be paid for the coaching position at CoA.
In an email to The Citizen, Dixon stated that Payton is being hired as an adjunct faculty member and that the community college is working on scheduling a press conference in the near future.
PCCD’s part-time salary schedule, which places adjunct faculty on a pay scale based on their years of experience and level of education, lists an hourly pay between $74.53 and $204.83 for classes they teach.
PCCD’s Title and Pay Ranges website also lists coaching stipends by sport, with the basketball coaching stipend listed at $6,228.
