Brandon Clarke has died. Paramedics reportedly responded to an emergency call from a home in the San Fernando Valley around dinner time Monday, and declared Clarke dead at the scene. He was 29 years old, and a seven-year NBA veteran who'd played his entire professional career with the Memphis Grizzlies.
The call that brought paramedics to the scene of Clarke's death was, in official jargon, for a medical emergency. Subsequent reporting from NBC4 Los Angeles indicates that Clarke's death is being investigated as a possible drug overdose, and that drug paraphernalia was reportedly found "in the home." ABC News reported from sources later Monday that investigators found narcotics. This is inevitably drawing renewed attention to an incident from April, when Clarke was arrested in Arkansas and charged with possession of a controlled substance. That substance, per reports, was kratom, a traditional medicine derived from the leaves of a tropical evergreen tree, sold commercially as a powder and used as a stimulant. Clarke was found in possession of 200 grams of kratom, which sounds like a lot but is not: The fine powder, which looks and smells like attic dust, with a soupçon of oolong, is sold in comparable quantities at vape shops, dispensaries, and trendy cafés. A company called Earth Kratom, for example, distributes a whole range of kratom products in slickly packaged resealable bags, each containing 250 grams of kratom powder. Arkansas, where Clarke was charged, is one of just a handful of states where possession of kratom is criminalized.
Clarke was a very cool basketball player. He was undersized as a power forward, but he had a special, Blake Griffin-esque relationship with gravity, and could hold his own as a rebounder and rim protector. He was a fearsome lob threat, which gave him a kind of floor-warping gravity of his own when operating as the screener in a well-executed pick-and-roll. I liked to watch him with the ball in his hands: Clarke didn't have a ton of moves, but he liked to drive at the cup, and by his freshman year in college he'd developed a go-to move, leading with his left hand and then spinning back to his right. He was so quick and light-footed that the spin continued to work against plodding opponents deep into Clarke's professional career: In an earlier era, the makers of NBA Showdown would've coded it in there as his signature move.
Clarke played two years at San Jose State University before transferring to Gonzaga and redshirting for a season. In the 2018–19 season, with Clarke as a starting forward, the Bulldogs went 33–4, were undefeated in the West Coast Conference, and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, and Clarke made the conference's first team and was its Defensive Player of the Year. He was selected by Oklahoma City with the 21st pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, and was traded about two weeks later to the Grizzlies, with whom he signed a rookie contract. The Grizzlies of his rookie season had 20-year-old Ja Morant, 20-year-old Jaren Jackson Jr., and 23-year-old Brandon Clarke, which at the time seemed like an impossibly cool and complementary trio of foundational players.
Clarke never hit the career highs of his ballyhooed running-mates. He seemed very chill about landing in a bench role on a good Memphis team, and made the most of his opportunities, but injuries were a constant headache: The closest Clarke came to playing a full NBA season came during his rookie campaign, in the pandemic-shortened 2019–20 season, when he participated in 58 of 73 possible games. His Achilles tendon tore in March 2023, costing him the remainder of that season and all but six games of the next. Right knee troubles ended his 2024–25 season prematurely, and related troubles with his lower right leg plus Memphis's doomed trajectory limited him to just two games this past regular season. He had two guaranteed seasons left on an extension signed in October 2022. Entering his age-30 season, Clarke might've had an expanded role after Jackson went to the Utah Jazz.
Clarke seems to have been pretty well loved by his coaches and teammates. Gonzaga head coach Mark Few remembered him Monday as "one of the most easygoing players" he's ever coached. Clarke's agency, Priority Sports, called him "the gentlest soul" and "the most supportive friend you could ever imagine."
