Zan Payne. UK men’s basketball photo shoot at the Kentucky Theater. Photo by Chet White | UK Athletics
Not having former assistant coach Kenny Payne on the Kentucky staff makes for a different practice scenario even for Payne’s son, Zan
“Practice is way different,” Zan Payne, a sophomore said. “But we’re still doing good. We’re all on track. I still talk to him every day.”
Payne left John Calipari’s staff to join the New York Knicks. He had been with Calipari since the start at Kentucky.
“My dad used to like, I guess, yell at everybody and make us run a lot. If you knew him, he’s hard on everybody. He likes things the way he wants it. It’s definitely different in that way,” Zan Payne laughed and said during a preseason Zoom conference Wednesday.
His father basically tells him to “keep working hard and keep working out” during their conversations now.
Anything else?
“Really just shooting it better and just always keeping a high motor and playing hard at all times, never going (resting) on your knees, having great conditioning,” Zan Payne said.
Payne suffered a knee injury his senior season at Lexington Catholic High School and said his conditioning is way better this season in part because of quarantine workouts he did with his father before Kenny Payne left for the Knicks.
“During quarantine, at the start of it, every day me and my dad would go walking. He would walk while I would run. As soon as I got far enough ahead, I would just run back to him and then just walk with him,” Zan Payne said. “I kept doing different patterns of running and walking.
“Last year when I was practicing, I would just be tired when I was doing everything when I came back from the injury.”
The UK sophomore admitted it was hard when his father initially took the new job because he was always “right by my side” during his athletics career.
“Everybody in my family, we were all happy for him. We were happy he’s going to work for the New York Knicks. That was one of his dream jobs was working in the NBA, so we were all happy for him,” Zan Payne said.
“He influences it a lot. Every day when I was little, we used to work out together, like every single day. He would teach me everything that he would do. When he left, it was all good because he went to go work with the New York Knicks.”
Zan Payne said Knicks players and fans need to understand how he will push players even in the NBA.
“He’s just never going to give up on any of the guys that are on the team. He’s just going to keep working with them until they perfect whatever he wants them to perfect or whatever he needs them to do,” the UK sophomore said. “He’s just going to keep working until they’re at where they need to be at.”
