Brandon Clarke was found unresponsive in a Woodland Hills bedroom on May 11, 2026. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics pronounced him dead at 5:15 p.m. He was 29.

The Grizzlies and his agency, Priority Sports, announced it the next day. The team called him an outstanding teammate and a better person. They said his impact on Memphis would not be forgotten. Early reports said investigators were looking at a possible overdose. Drug paraphernalia was found in the house. There was no sign of foul play.

In August the Los Angeles County medical examiner made it official. Cause of death: the effects of heroin and cocaine. Manner: accident. Combined effects of multiple prescription medications were listed as a significant condition. Kratom was also in his system. That matched the first wave of “possible overdose” headlines on graphics like this one.

Six weeks before he died, Clarke had been arrested in Cross County, Arkansas. Deputies said he fled at over 100 mph and had 235 grams of kratom in a duffel. Kratom is a felony there. It was still legal in Tennessee, where he kept a home. He bonded out for $25,000. Arraignment was set for May 15. He died four days before that date.

Clarke was born in Vancouver on September 19, 1996. Desert Vista High in Phoenix. San Jose State, then Gonzaga. Oklahoma City took him 21st in 2019 and sent him to Memphis. He never left. Three hundred nine games, 10.2 points, 5.5 rebounds. All-Rookie First Team. High-energy forward next to Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. Injuries limited him to two games in 2025-26.

He had started a foundation aimed at literacy and Memphis kids. That is the other half of the obituary. The first half is a 6-foot-8 player dead in a San Fernando Valley house with Narcan and syringes in the room.

The graphic is the news as it broke: 29, Grizzlies, possible overdose. The later paperwork did not change the age or the team. It only named what the investigation had already pointed at.