CHICAGO (AP) — There wasn’t a more touching story in college basketball this season than the friendship between Michigan State star Adreian Payne and Lacey Holsworth.

An 8-year-old girl fighting cancer. A basketball player bonding with her like a big brother.

NBA executives wanted to hear all about it, and Payne was happy to oblige.

The story came up quite a bit in meetings at the NBA draft combine in Chicago this week, with teams asking him to recount how he became friends with the girl from St. Johns, Michigan, who died April 8.

Payne says teams “really like what I did” and “just tipped their hat off to me about things that I did in the community.”