Adreian DeAngleo Payne was born on February 19, 1991. Payne is a professional basketball player, currently playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for Michigan State University.
Payne played high school basketball for Jefferson High School. He posted averages of 15.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and 4.0 blocks as a senior. As a senior, he led Jefferson to a Division IV state championship and a 19.5 record. The Dayton Daily News named him first team All-Area.
As a freshman at Michigan State University, Payne averaged 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, playing in 34 games. In his sophomore season, he led the team, he led the team in blocks (39) and finished seventh in the Big 10. In 37 games (36 starts), he averaged 7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He was an Academic All-Big Ten selection.
As a junior, Payne led the Big Ten in free-throw percentage (.848) and blocked a total of 46 shots, good for sixth all-time for a Michigan State player. In 36 games, he averaged 10.5 points and 7.6 rebounds in 25.6 minutes per game. Payne was named to the Second Team All Big Ten, along with Michigan State teammate Keith Appling and Gary Harris.
Coming into his senior season, Payne was on the preseason Naismith and Wooden Award watch lists. CBS Sports selected him to the preseason Third Team All-America. He was named to the Midseason Wooden Award Top 25 watch list. Payne was twice named Big Ten Player of the Week. He missed seven games due to suffering an ankle injury. At the conclusion of the regular season Payne was named Second Team All-Big Ten.
During the 2013-14 college basketball season, Payne's friendship with Lacey Holsworth, an 8-year-old cancer patient, gained national media attention. Their friendship started when Payne met Holsworth during a team-sponsored hospital visit in 2011 and the two began to text and talk frequently afterward. Holsworthy, who battled with a nerve cancer known as neuroblastoma, accompanied Payne at center court on Senior Night and helped him cut down the nets after the 2013-14 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team won the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. Holsworth, also known as "Princess Lacey", died from her cancer on April 8, 2014.
On June 26, 2014, Payne was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. On July 25, 2014, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Hawks after averaging 12.5 points and 7.0 rebounds during the 2014 NBA Summer League. After managing five preseason games for the Hawks, he was ruled out for the start of the regular season with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. He subsequently missed the first ten games of the season with the injury, and upon his return, he was assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League on November 20, 2014. He was recalled by the Hawks on November 23rd, reassigned on November 28th, and recalled again on December 6th.
With the maximum allowance of four NBA players already being on assignment to the Mad Ants, the flexible assignment rule was used on December 9th so the Hawks could assign Payne to the Austin Spurs, the San Antonio Spurs' one-to-one D-League affiliate. On December 22, he was recalled by the Hawks and went on to make his long awaited NBA debut on December 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks, recording 2 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes of action as the Hawks lost 77-107. On December 30, the flexible assignment rule was again used to assign Payne to Austin. He was recalled again on January 12, 2015.
On February 10, 2015, Payne was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchanged for a lottery-protected future first-round pick. On March 9, 2015, he had a season-best game with 16 points and 15 rebounds while starting in place of Kevin Garnett as the Timberwolves lost 76-89 to the Los Angeles Clippers. On October 21, 2015, Minnesota exercised his third-year team option for the 2016-2017 season.