For all the talk about the wonderful impact he has made, there are moments, Adreian Payne says, when he gets so much out of his visits with his good friend Lacey Holsworth, an 8-year old from St. Johns, Mich., waging a fight against an aggressive childhood cancer.
He gives, but he also receives.
“She helped me in a lot of ways,’’ Payne, a senior forward for Michigan State, said Saturday at the Garden. “Me being able to spend time with her, take my mind off basketball, that’s good when you can do that. My family is four hours away from Michigan so me being able to have somebody I can go talk to, spend some time with, just color and do little things like that is great.’’
Friday night, little Lacey and her parents were on the scene as Payne scored 16 points and the Spartans outlasted Virginia 61-59, setting the stage for Sunday’s East Regional final against UConn for the right to head to Arlington, Texas, for the Final Four. The Holsworth family will attend that game as well as a real-life battle intertwines with what figures to be a hotly contested NCAA Tournament matchup between No. 4-seed Michigan State (29-8) and seventh-seeded UConn (29-8).
Payne gained a national following for his touching relationship with Lacey. He met her more than a year ago, when the Spartans visited sick children at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich. The two developed a friendship that erupted into a social media frenzy, with Payne prodding his Twitter followers to pray for “Princess Lacey.’’ A video hit the Internet detailing her fight and his devotion to her.
He calls her “Little Sis’’ and she calls him “Superman.’’ It was Lacey who escorted Payne onto the court at the Breslin Center for Senior Night. When the Spartans won the Big Ten Tournament, Payne hoisted Lacey up so she could help cut down the net. Two years ago, Lacey was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She appeared to be defeating the cancer before it recently returned.
“There really wasn’t too much I could do with her at that time because she was so sick, but my presence was enough,’’ Payne said of his first dealings with Lacey. “She really liked me being there. Her parents were going through so much. I just told ’em if they wanted me to be there, if they needed anything they could call or text me to take their mind off of it sometimes. And it grew from there.’’
In many ways Payne can relate to Lacey’s struggles. Growing up in Dayton, Ohio, he lost his mother at age 13 when she died in his arms after an asthmatic reaction. Gloria Lewis was 41. Payne’s father, Thomas Payne, was in jail from 1996-99 on drug charges. Payne grew close to his grandmother, but before his junior year at Michigan State, she died, also from an asthmatic condition. As a young student, Payne had to learn to live with a learning disability that had classmates referring to him as an “idiot.’’
Perhaps sending out sympathetic vibes is something that comes naturally for Payne, considering all he’s been through.
“That may have something to do with it,’’ Payne said. “I always want to see kids do well. Lacey was a dancer and it was taken from her with the cancer, she wasn’t able to walk or dance any more. That’s something she enjoyed and loves doing. I can incorporate that with basketball. If basketball was taken away from me, how would I feel? I just want to help her get back strong and dance and do something she loves.’’
Payne’s 16 points against Virginia represented his fifth straight double-figure scoring game. In three NCAA Tournament games, he’s averaging 23 points, which likely helps him move up a notch or two in the eyes of NBA scouts. Showing far more versatility than ever before, Payne at 6-foot-10 has developed an outside game.
“Adreian is one of those guys who benefited from staying in college,’’ coach Tom Izzo said. “I’m not saying he couldn’t have made it [in the NBA] last year — I thought he was coming out. He is so much a better player this year in so many ways.
“You know, I hope it works out for him because he’s kind of a success story in a lot of ways, not only his off-the-court things that he’s done with Lacey, his academic things — not a very good student who’s done a good job graduating and in basketball. So he’s hit the trifecta. When you come to college you hope to grow as a player, as a person and as a student. And this kid has done all three.’’