Draymond Green donates $3.1 million to Michigan State athletics

EAST LANSING, Mich. Draymond Green’s love for Michigan State goes back to childhood and watching his aunt Annette Babers star for the Michigan State women’s basketball team.

It continued as a grade-school kid cheering on fellow Saginaw native Jason Richardson as he helped the Spartans win the 2000 national championship. It became personal through four seasons playing for Tom Izzo picking up three Big Ten titles, two Final Four appearances and one Big Ten Player of the Year nod along the way and Green has remained tightly connected with the program amid his rise to NBA champion.

Thursday, he expressed those feelings in zeroes on a $3.1 million check to MSU athletics in support of the men’s basketball program. Green and MSU made the announcement at a press conference at Breslin Center.

It’s the largest single gift to MSU athletics from a former MSU athlete, and Forbes.com reported it is the largest single gift ever from an active professional athlete to any university.

The Draymond Green Strength and Conditioning Center at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center will be named in his honor, and it will include a new entrance for fans with a hall of history and recruiting center. The gift, pending board of trustees approval, will devote $1 million to that and the rest to an endowment that will fund scholarships for the program.

Green is entering his fourth season with the Golden State Warriors after playing a key role in the Warriors’ NBA Finals victory over Cleveland in June. The starting power forward then signed a five-year deal worth $82 million to stay with the team as an unrestricted free agent an outcome few would have predicted three years ago when he joined the team as a second-round pick.

“Do I take the credit for that?” Green said at a news conference with MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, athletic director Mark Hollis and men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo. “Or do I give the credit to where it’s rightfully due, which is my university?”

His donation is the latest major commitment made by a prominent MSU athlete, after former MSU and NFL offensive lineman Flozell Adams gave $1.5 million in 2014 for the Spartan Stadium north end zone renovation, and former MSU basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson gave $3 million for the same project. Johnson previously donated $1 million in 2011 to the MSU athletic department.

In 1997, former MSU and NBA star Steve Smith gave $2.5 million to MSU for construction of the Clara Bell Smith academic center, named after his late mother. At the time, it was the largest donation ever given by a professional athlete to a college or university.

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