{"id":312599,"date":"2026-05-12T21:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/312599\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T21:56:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:56:46","slug":"grizzlies-forward-brandon-clarke-former-san-jose-state-star-dies-at-29-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/312599\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, former San Jose State Star, dies at 29"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memphis Grizzlies power forward Brandon Clarke, a former star at San Jose State<\/a>, has died at the age of 29.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies and Clarke\u2019s agency, Priority Sports, announced the news on Tuesday but gave no cause of death.<\/p>\n

NBC Los Angeles reported<\/a> that he died Monday in the San Fernando Valley, and officials are investigating his death as a possible overdose after finding drug paraphernalia in the home. Fire and police officials have made no public statements about Clarke\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Clarke spent the first two years of his college career with the Spartans under coach Dave Wojcik and was named the Mountain West Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman, earning all-conference honors in his second season in San Jose.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandon was such a wonderful person,\u201d Wojcik, now the head coach at the University of the Incarnate Word, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. \u201cHe had such a positive energy about himself all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great kid to recruit, and a great kid to coach. It\u2019s just very sad. And my heart breaks for his parents. I can\u2019t even imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Jose State guard Brandon Clarke (15) celebrates with forward Ryan Welage after scoring against Boise State during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in San Jose, Calif., Saturday, March 5, 2016. San Jose State won 68-63. (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies said<\/a>, \u201cWe are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke. Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the gentlest soul who was first to be there for all of his friends and family,\u201d Priority Sports said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cOur hearts are so broken as we think about his mom, Whitney, his entire family, and all of his friends and teammates. From high school to San Jose State to Gonzaga to the Grizzlies, Brandon impacted everyone who was part of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke arrived at San Jose State in 2015 after graduating from Desert Vista High School in suburban Phoenix. Wojcik said the Spartans were Clarke\u2019s lone scholarship offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always ask what I saw in him, and I told my staff, he doesn\u2019t do anything great, he just does everything very, very well,\u201d Wojcik said. \u201cHe really worked, developed his jump shot, and the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clarke led the Spartans with 17.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game as a sophomore, making 59.2% of his shots. He was the first player associated with the SJSU basketball program selected in the NBA draft since the Kings took Tariq Abdul-Wahad in the first round in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur condolences to the Clarke family,\u201d San Jose State said in a statement. \u201cWe are saddened by the news and his impact at SJSU will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Wojcik resigned as the Spartans\u2019 head coach in July 2017, Clarke transferred to Gonzaga<\/a>, where he redshirted the 2017-18 season and starred the following season, leading the West Coast Conference with 3.3 blocks per game and being named to the all-WCC team. He was also a third-team All-American in his lone year playing in Spokane.<\/p>\n

He was drafted No. 21 overall in the 2018 NBA draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who immediately traded him to Memphis.<\/p>\n

Clarke grew to become a key member of the Grizzlies\u2019 rotation by 2022, when they faced the Warriors in a second-round series.<\/p>\n

He signed a four-year extension with the Grizzlies that offseason, but a series of leg injuries \u2014 including a torn Achilles and a serious knee sprain \u2014 harmed his career progress. He played only six games in 2023-24, 64 in 2024-25 and just two games last season.<\/p>\n

Clarke was born in Vancouver, Canada native but played in high school at Phoenix\u2019s Desert Vista High before coming to San Jose State as a freshman in 2015.<\/p>\n

Clarke was arrested last month<\/a> on drug and traffic charges in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are devastated to learn of the passing of Brandon Clarke,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement on Tuesday. \u201cAs one of the longest-tenured members of the Grizzlies, Brandon was a beloved teammate and leader who played the game with enormous passion and grit. Our thoughts are with Brandon\u2019s family, friends and the Grizzlies organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memphis Grizzlies power forward Brandon Clarke, a former star at San Jose State, has died at the age…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[4213,1327,402,181,129,100,8567,88,90,89,997,127],"class_list":["post-312599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-news-obituaries","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state-spartans","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}