Payne won a place in the NBA with his performance.
Thunder produced, the Russian city dance king, CBA abandonment ...... Payne in the seventh year of his career, like a stamp collection of all kinds of basketball buffs, and then a brain to show the results in front of the fans.
The Sun eliminated the Lakers series, Payne averaged 13.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists before G6, and his scoring average has quietly ranked third on the team.
On the court, he'll still be a shadow of his Thunder days - he'll stand outside the 3-point line and dance softly to himself when his teammates make free throws. But compared to his days sitting on the bench, Payne today really puts his energy out on the court.
For a player who was once abandoned by the NBA, and even said "can't even play in the CBA," to be able to return to the NBA and shine is enough to make people say that - this kid can be considered to be playing! The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty.
Payne started out with the Thunder.
Willow's little brother, the king of the Russian city dance
Payne before the Suns to play in the highlights, fans remembered the words "Willow dance partner", "Russian city dance king", etc., and the more sophisticated fans will call out the words "the king of the Russian city dance". The more seasoned fans also called out "CBA castoffs".
The story begins in 2015.
In June, the Barclays Center in New York City was filled with people, and Thunder GM Presti repeatedly rubbed his hand with the No. 14 pick, one of the few lottery picks he's gotten in years.
The previous season, Durant underwent bone graft surgery on his right foot and was lost for the season after only 27 games. The Thunder also fell from second in the league the year before to ninth in the West, and the No. 14 lottery pick was their best chance to make up for that.
At this point, they are in dire need of a replacement point guard. Before the draft, the Thunder had just sent away the self-appointed Reggie Jackson, and they were looking for a teammate with an outgoing personality who could make Willow happy. If possible, it would be best to leave 10 minutes per game for Willow to catch his breath.
The No. 14 pick isn't high, but it's good enough for Presti. He drafted Adams in the 12th round, and Ibaka and Reggie in the 24th round.
In the previous round, the Sun selected Devin Booker, who has a "13th-ranked point guard" buff, and the Thunder selected Cameron Payne, a two-way guard who averaged 20.3 points, 6 assists, and 1.8 steals in his second season in the NCAA, and shot 37.3% from three-point range. Payne.
And he was originally projected to go as high as the fringe of the first round.
Willis' "dance partner".
The reality is that, as Thunder management imagined, the spontaneous Payne was soon hanging out with Willis - they would always meet each other before a game and do a variety of dances. People knew that Willow had a scrawny little follower who would catch everyone's eye with his strange dance moves.
Since then, the name "King of the Russian City" has spread.
As for the job of giving Willis a 10-minute break, the dancer who burned up his energy before the game was not up to the task, and the Thunder had to find someone else, backup point guard Foye.
Donovan had this to say: "and Payne like a lot of players from the NCAA have been the team's scoring champion, but in the NBA they have to know what is a better chance of offense. Payne may not have to be a pure point guard, but he should also know the timing of the pass."
And so, the King of the Dance took a bow and turned away. The headline on the Oklahoma media's sendoff story read Thunder Trade Westbrook's Dance Partner.
Payne was traded to the Bulls.
This guy can't even play in the NBA
On February 24, 2017, the Bulls and the Thunder made a big 5-player deal: the Thunder sent Payne, Morrow, and Lovelace to the Bulls for Ty Gibson, McDermott, and the Bulls stuck a second round in the deal.
We have to lament the vision of the Thunder management, a year later to look back at the deal: Gibson in the Timberwolves took a big contract, the Thunder with McDermott and the Bulls second round from the Knicks pounded Anthony; the other side of the Morrow hastily went to the BIG3, LoVergne returned to Europe, and Payne is still in the team.
Originally, Payne was the Bulls' target in this deal. Even when he first arrived in Chicago, Bulls management rhetoric, "you have to remember, Payne is we traded for Gibson, you think back to how Gibson played that year, Payne can also."
But a Bulls insider, who wished to remain anonymous, gave the opposite answer: "The team knew after the second practice that this guy couldn't play in the NBA at all," as well as the accompanying line, "The general manager is just a ball buster. "
Payne roars after scoring against the Lakers in this year's playoffs.
But Payne didn't feel the same way, and he cheerfully looked ahead to the media, "I don't have much of a chance with the Thunder because I'm ahead of Willis and Augustin, one is an MVP and the other is now starting for the Magic, which means that I'm buried, and I really feel good about myself."
But it wasn't a flight of fancy that found its way to the door, but stretches of injuries. Just recovered from a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot, he wanted to make a big splash and increased his training volume on his own, and here's the result: on the first day of training camp, he fractured his right foot again.
The Bulls watched for three years before finally giving up on Payne.
At the time, an optimistic Payne laughed at himself, "I heard the average age in the NBA is 3.2 years, and I've been playing for 3.5 years, and I've got a big future ahead of me."
This jovial attribute may stem from family, "I'm well protected in my cozy family." Payne once described his surroundings this way, "They see unfair comments but don't let me know about them, which is the best protection."
When the Bulls chose to cut Payne in January 2019, Payne was asleep when his agent called him. And he was so laid back before receiving the news that he was in bed for a full day.
Payne came to the CBA's Shanxi team.
Becoming a "CBA outcast"
Family brings warmth, but it doesn't get you a job.
With no ball to play, Payne reluctantly chose the CBA's Shanxi men's basketball team, "It was an extremely scary decision for me, but I made it."
It took him a month to go through all the passport formalities, but what does a carefree teenager growing up in a warm family know about the hardships of wandering in a foreign land?
When he and his girlfriend landed in Hong Kong, China, on a whim like they were moving, the Shanxi men's basketball team didn't have a pickup service for him.
So he and his girlfriend had to hike nearly 1 kilometer to their hotel. Of course, there are 6 big suitcases to carry around. Payne, who had a hard time getting to the hotel, had another meltdown because the room couldn't even fit the luggage Payne had brought with him.
In fact, this is very much to blame for the CBA team's poor service, after all, it was the nearest hotel, and Payne may not understand how extravagant it is to fit 6 suitcases in a hotel in Hong Kong, where every inch of land is expensive.
"My first thought was, this isn't the NBA," said Payne, for whom it's all about getting used to, "I can't take NBA treatment for granted."
Payne and Zhao Jiwei clashed.
Arriving in the CBA, he didn't play first, but sat on the bench for a month. After all, Shanxi has always preferred to find a strong offensive attributes of the foreign aid, and Franklin is an average of 30.1 points, 10.1 assists, 9.5 rebounds "triple-double monster", Payne is just his "spare tire".
It wasn't until Franklin got hurt that Payne had a chance to make his debut at the end of 2019.
Against Liaoning, he got 19 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 7 steals, but people mostly think of his elbow over Zhao Jiwei's scene; against the North, facing the three foreign aid, Payne 26 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, but at the same time, there are 4 turnovers, and a number of breakthroughs were covered, Shanxi lost 23 points.
Two games, most people give the answer is: "This person can not play CBA."
Now Payne recalled that experience and said with a smile, "I am all over the body in the cramps, I have not played for a long time, have been drinking Coke, I thought I could not play again."
After two road games, Payne didn't even have time to make his home debut before Shanxi announced that it was terminating his contract -- because Payne's heart had drifted back to the NBA, according to Zhu Fangyu, who said that Shanxi tried to retain him, but Payne refused.
Payne then called his agent, Jason Gruson, in a frenzy: "I'm going to play in the NBA Development League."
The trip unlocked another accomplishment for him: a CBA castoff.
Payne didn't do well in the CBA, either.
"How much longer do you want to play?"
Back in the developmental league, Payne played for the Legends, the Maverick's affiliate. But after the NBA rematch, the Mavericks chose Trey Burke, who has a "replica skin" of Iverson. The latter did not let the Maverick disappointed, after the rematch averaged 12.0 points, 3.8 assists and 1.9 rebounds, and in the playoffs shine.
For Payne, the effort seemed all for naught. "That was it for my career." Payne recalled it this way.
Until the second call from the agent, "What do you think of Monty Williams?"
The Monty the agent was talking about was the head coach of the Suns - Monty spent a season as a Thunder assistant coach with rookie Payne*** during the 2015-2016 season. Now that the Suns are short a backup guard, Monty thought of Payne.
On the other end of the phone, Monty asked Payne to remember a conversation between the two in the Thunder training base during his rookie season - an early morning in Russia City, Willow had already arrived at the ballroom to start training, so Monty said to Payne: "How much longer do you want to play? Get to the gym before Willis, and stick with it so you can beat him."
Payne did as he was told at first, of course, but two days later, Willis was nowhere to be seen by his little old brother. "I was young and I didn't treat it all right." Payne assured that today he is ready for the NBA.
Monty Williams saved Payne.
The results have been exactly what he said they would be, as he averaged 10.9 points, 3 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1 steal per game on 51.7 percent three-point shooting and 1.9 three-pointers per game in the eight games of the rematch.
While the Sun didn't make the playoffs, Payne stood his ground, and when Paul joined the team, he became the team's backup guard.
This year's playoffs, when Paul was injured, Booker "on the head", once thin Payne from the bench stood out, not only to carry the team, become the most energetic players in the Sun team.
He fought the Lakers' backline, tirelessly assisted in defense, and even grabbed rebounds with Davis James and others on top, and he put the passion of the year's pre-game dance on top of the court.
So, you will quietly find that Payne this series has become the team's number three - G6 before the average scoring 13.6 points team third, the average assists 3.8 team third, the average steals 1.4 team first, the average hit the three-point field goal 2.0 team second. Payne also had seven points in Game 6.
At this point, fans also started chanting that slogan: "When the Thunder make a play, they make a play."
Payne breaks through Caruso's defense.
"I've been hit with the reality that I don't want to be eliminated from this league, and I just put in the work every day to get a foothold in the league." That was Payne's quote at the end of the regular season, coincidentally against none other than the Lakers, a game in which he had 19 points and seven assists.
Now, Payne is back, but feels one step short himself, "I'm going to try to get my next contract to count."
Proofread by Yijia Xu