Ex-Timberwolf Adreian Payne murdered in Orlando, Florida
The shocking death of 31-year-old Adreian Payne, who played for the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2014-2017, has been ruled a homicide.
Payne was fatally shot while on the 2500 block of Egret Shores Drive in Orlando, Florida, early Monday morning. The Orange County Sheriff's Office reports that the shooting happened at 1:37 a.m.
Payne was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The suspected shooter, a 29-year-old Orlando man, was arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail on a pending first-degree murder charge. The sheriff's office says the suspect stayed at the scene and was interviewed before being taken into custody.
No further information has been released.
Payne played three of his five NBA seasons with the Timberwolves, spending 2014-2017 in Minnesota where he played under former head coaches Flip Saunders, Sam Mitchell and Tom Thibodeau.
After his career in the NBA ended in 2018, he played overseas as a member of Panathinaikos in Greek League Basketball.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.