Gary Payton is the Cookies and Powerzzzup Genetics collaboration built from The Y, also written Y Griega, and Snowman. Cookies launched it in July 2019 under a licensing deal with the Hall of Fame guard himself. Fuel leads, pepper and citrus sit behind it, and the flower comes dense and purple-bruised.
Where It Comes From
Cookies announced the strain on July 11, 2019, naming a joint venture with Kenny Dumetz's Powerzzzup Genetics and confirming that Payton had licensed his name and likeness for it.
Berner told the origin plainly in that announcement: a phenotype hunt produced a run of new crosses, and when the team smoked through them, "The #20 stood out big time and naturally Kenny called it 'That Gary Payton.'" Payton wore number 20. Berner framed the deal as "like the Wheaties box for the weed game," and Gary Vaynerchuk, a partner at Green Street, called it a first for an athlete with Payton's resume.
The release put flower in Cookies' California stores immediately, including the Los Angeles and Redding locations, with Michigan following in August 2019. Worth being precise about the number: #20 was a selection number out of that hunt that happened to match the jersey. Cookies tells it as coincidence that became a name, not a marketing plan built backward.
The Cross
Powerzzzup Genetics is the breeder and the cross is The Y x Snowman, with Cookies handling the launch and the retail side.
The Y circulates as Y Griega, a Durban Poison and GSC descendant, though that background travels with the cut rather than with breeder paperwork instead of a documented pedigree. Snowman is a Cookies-family selection associated with Berner, valued for unusually heavy trichome coverage and sweet dough character.
Put those together and the plant makes sense. Gas and pepper show up in nearly every account of it, with caryophyllene, limonene, and linalool leading the terpene set: the pepper, the citrus brightness, and a faint floral turn. Reviewers reach for spicy diesel up front, bright citrus through the middle, and a cookies-and-cream finish, with cherry, orange, and pine showing in individual phenotypes.
Flower typically runs dense and green with purple bruising, burnt-orange pistils, and thick frost, though how far the purple travels depends on the room rather than the name. On effect, the common pattern is a quick, talkative, sometimes giggly opening that gives way to physical ease, with larger amounts flipping that ratio and landing considerably heavier. Pacing matters here more than the hybrid label does, and cannabinoid and terpene numbers move batch to batch, so read the current panel rather than the reputation.
What It Left Behind
The footprint is commercial and cultural. The July 2019 announcement was among the first cannabis licensing deals built around a Hall of Fame athlete's name and likeness, and the cultivar became one of the most widely copied Cookies releases of its era, which is also why plenty of flower carries the name without the provenance behind it.
The High Rise Take
Gary Payton is Powerzzzup and Cookies' The Y x Snowman selection, launched July 2019: gas, pepper, and citrus over dense purple-streaked flower, social before it is sedating.