In this heartfelt video, NBA star Draymond Green announces the tragic death of his former Michigan State teammate and roommate Adrian "Adrian" Payne, who was shot while trying to help a friend in a domestic dispute. Green recounts Payne’s difficult upbringing—losing his mother at 13, being raised by his grandmother, and overcoming learning disabilities—to highlight his resilience and character. He shares personal memories, including Payne’s compassion toward a terminally‑ill child, his role as a devoted father to his young son Amari (who recently underwent brain surgery), and the impact of Payne’s loss on his family and the Spartan community. Green announces a $100,000 donation from himself and his wife Hazel to support Payne’s children, proposes a GoFundMe, and outlines plans to honor Payne with a dedicated space or naming within the Draymond Green Strength and Conditioning Facility at Michigan State. He urges the Spartan family and broader public to contribute, and issues a strong call to action for anyone experiencing domestic‑violence situations to seek help, emphasizing that such conflicts often end in tragedy. The video blends personal grief, celebration of Payne’s legacy, concrete fundraising initiatives, and a public safety message.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. I would love to take a moment, maybe a little longer than a moment, and talk about a brother of mine, my college teammate, my college roommate for 2 and a half years. Adrian Payne, dear, dear friend. We suffered a tragic loss early this morning. And I woke up today to my mom crying, calling me. My mom never calls me that early, so a little weird. I never really hear the phone when I'm asleep, so. It's also a little weird that I actually heard the phone vibrating, and I saw it was my mom, so I picked up. And I had about an hour left of sleep time before my alarm went off for shootaround. And I received the news that Adrian had been shot and killed. For anyone that knew Adrian, you know, or you knew, Adrian was harmless. He was an incredible person. He cared about people more than he cared about himself. And when I say harmless, he lost his life going to help someone. Adrian arrived to help a friend in a domestic that was dealing with a domestic dispute, or— and when Adrian arrived to help, he was tragically shot. And the big brother in me would love to call Adrian right now and curse him out. Mm-hmm. And say, hey, man, like, you know, I know you want to help, but maybe send someone to help. Maybe call the cops to help, as that is their duty, as they are trained for that. And wishful thinking. I would love to call and say that to him. Unfortunately— Mm-hmm. I'll never have that opportunity again. Adrian— Adrian was such a joy to be around. Always great energy. Funny. [SPEAKING SPANISH] Hilarious. We all call him Big Player. 'Cause every time he see us or see someone, "What's up, player, player? What's up, player?" Call everybody, "These my little players." And we all call him Big Player. And Adrian, to give you a little backstory on Adrian, you know, I talked to Coach DJ this morning, Coach Dwayne Stephens. Mm-hmm. And he was kind of telling me exactly what happened. And the first thing I said to him is, who's going to plan his funeral? Adrian lost his mom at 13 years old. She died in his arms. He couldn't find her in hell. And at 13 years old, she passed away right in his arms. Imagine living with the weight on your heart, the burden, the thought of, "If only I could have found that inhaler, I could have saved her life." Is that true? We don't know. We'll never know. But what is true is I know Adrian lived with that burden for the rest of his life. Mm-hmm. Which was tragically cut short 18 years later at the age of 31. Adrian was— then went on to be raised by his grandmother, who passed away going into my senior year of college. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] which would be going into Adrian's sophomore year of college. And so I asked the question, who's going to plan his funeral? Because that is a legit worry. That is a legit concern. Adrian has a son. That is 3 or 4 years old named Amari. Adrian recently just had another kid. And from my understanding— well, actually, what I do know for certain is that Adrian was an incredible father. Mm-hmm. His son recently, within the last 8 or 9 months, had brain surgery. And AP was right by his side the moment he could be. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] His son, who he loved dearly, who looks just like him, now has to grow up without a father. Preparing myself to play for a game today was one of the hardest things I've had to do in— that I can think of in my recent memory. Ultimately, I found it within to try to bring some energy to the game, to try to help my team win. 'Cause unfortunately, in the world that we live in, life just continues to go on. And I had a moment in my seat at my locker this morning, and Coach Kerr said to me, "You can go home. Nobody's expecting you to be here." And it's like, "Nah, Coach, I have— I got a game to prepare for." Like, we— and that's just the reality. Like, life just continues to go on. Unfortunately, life has to continue to go on without AP. For his children, for his father, for his brothers, for his blood brothers, for his Spartan brothers, for his Spartan family. It has to continue to go on without him. And— My hope and my prayer is that his son ultimately knows how much he loved him, how much he cared for him, how he would have given anything for him, his children. Absolutely loved children. There was a national story some years back when Adrian was still at Michigan State about a little girl named Lacey that had a terminal disease. I remember the first day, I was still on the team the first day we went to the children's hospital and AP met Lacey. We were kind of going from room to room, and AP stayed in the one room with her the whole time. And he left that hospital that day with a new friend, With a new sister. With someone that he would spend countless numbers of hours with for the rest of her short life. He had her at games. He went to birthday parties. He did whatever he could to show her that she had a friend in him. That's who Adrian Payne was. So when I say I would love to call and curse him out, the reality is, is it makes total sense that he lost his life going to help someone else. Because that's exactly how AP would have it. Mm-hmm. If you told AP, you're going to die, here are the ways in which you will die. And if that was one of the options, that would be the one he would pick. Because that's who Adrian Payne was. I can go on and on and on about stories I have with him. About memories— I can sit here and talk for hours about him. Spent a ton of time together. As I announced in my press conference tonight, Hazel and myself will donate $100,000. And it's just so fresh. Like, I don't know exactly what this is gonna look like. I don't know exactly what it's gonna be. But as I said in my press conference earlier, after the game, I am calling on my Spartan family to step up in AP's honor. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Coach Dizzo, Matt Ishbia, Magic Johnson, Gary Harris, Denzel Valentine, Xavier Tillman, Jaren Jackson III, Brynn Forbes, and all of those that I left off. And this is not just Spartan basketball family. Everyone who AP touched in the Spartan family. Maybe it'll consist of a couple different things. Maybe we'll start a GoFundMe or something to— for Adrian's children. But what I wanna do is, where my $100,000 will go, mine and Hazel, is— Mine too. I hope to start something for those that don't know how to reach this side. There will be a GoFundMe for you if you want to contribute for Adrian's kids. But what I want to do is— [SPEAKING CHINESE] —and those that I called on, is I want to put something together And we— I have the honor of having— when you walk into Michigan State's gym, practice gym, auxiliary gym, I have the honor of having a huge weight room right on the side of the court in Draymond Green Strength and Conditioning Facility. It came with my donation to the school. And what I want to do is with the guys that I've called upon. I wanna put something together in honor of Adrian. So when his son, who we will always have back at Michigan State, because this is a family. When his son walk in that gym or walk on that campus, I'm not sure what it'll be at, that he see something named after Adrian Payne. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] With a big, huge picture of Adrian Payne in Michigan State green and white. And he can look up and say, "That's my dad." And as he grow older, and as all of his children grow older, I keep saying he because that's the one I've had the opportunity to meet, Damar. As they grow older, they can walk in there and they can be proud and know that their dad left a legacy. Legacy, and he will never be forgotten. It brings me great joy when I take my family back and they see my picture on the wall, and they see the accolades, and they see the Draymond Green Strength and Conditioning Facility. It brings me great joy. And I hope— my hope and prayer is that— [SPEAKING CHINESE] forever, when we get this done, that his children will walk in and that will bring them great joy. And so as I said, I can go on and on, but that is my hope, that is my prayer, that is my call to action, if you will, my fellow Spartan family. Life is short. Enjoy those that you love. Embrace them. Get mad, get over it. Life is too short. I urge those who are in domestic violence situations to get help because a lot of times they end with someone that's in a dispute, life being taken. This time it ended with someone that's trying to help. Thank you. Life being taken. And unfortunately, those situations, they end like that all too often. And so I urge anyone who's in a domestic relationship, um, who's dealt with it, to get help, um, to call on help. If you know your friend is in a domestic relationship and they don't have it within themselves to get help because they think it's gonna get better, I urge you to reach out to someone and get them help. Mm-hmm. If your friend is in a domestic relationship, I urge you to call the cops, to send them, and not take it upon ourselves. Because the reality is, we can take it upon ourselves, and Adrian could have ended up protecting himself if he was armed, or— and then he's in a situation that he shouldn't have been in and losing his life a different way. Mm-hmm. And so I urge those that have any knowledge of any domestic situation to encourage your friend, family, whoever it may be, to get help. And if you see that they're not willing to get help, you try to help them. Yeah. Because we see— far too many lives taken away involving a domestic dispute. So that is my call to everyone who hears this. I ask for those that do hear this to share this with those that don't, because we see it far too often. Rest in peace, Adrian. I love you, brother. You were incredible. Thank you. You beat the odds. Beat the odds, my man. You made it out of Dayton, Ohio when they said you wouldn't make it past elementary school because of your learning disability. Not only did you make it past elementary, not only did you make it past middle school, not only did you make it past high school, not only did you make it to college, you graduated from college when they said you couldn't. Thank you. When they said you'd never play basketball at a high level because you couldn't run and shoot the ball at the same time. You couldn't run and chew gum at the same time when you first started. You beat the a-hats and you made it to the NBA. It's what we all dream about when we play this game. You actually did it. To my brother, I love you. Until we meet again. You got my word. I will always look out after your loved ones, your children, and help in any way I can. I love you, my brother.
