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Lorenzen Wright

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Lorenzen Wright
Wright in 2005
Personal information
Born(1975-11-04)November 4, 1975
Oxford, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedJuly 19, 2010(2010-07-19) (aged 34)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Listed weight255 lb (116 kg)
Career information
High school
CollegeMemphis (1994–1996)
NBA draft1996: 1st round, 7th overall pick
Selected by the Los Angeles Clippers
Playing career1996–2009
PositionCenter
Number55, 42
Career history
1996–1999Los Angeles Clippers
1999–2001Atlanta Hawks
2001–2006Memphis Grizzlies
2006–2008Atlanta Hawks
2008Sacramento Kings
2008–2009Cleveland Cavaliers
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points6,191 (8.0 ppg)
Rebounds4,943 (6.4 rpg)
Assists622 (0.8 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Medals
Men's Basketball
Representing  United States
Summer Universiade
Gold medal – first place 1995 Fukuoka Team competition

Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright (November 4, 1975 – July 19, 2010) was an American professional basketball player for thirteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was drafted seventh overall in the 1996 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers and also played for the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wright went missing on July 18, 2010, and was found shot to death ten days later. In December 2017, his ex-wife Sherra Wright-Robinson was charged with facilitating his murder; a year and a half later, she pleaded guilty. Her friend, Billy Ray Turner, was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and attempted first-degree murder in March 2022, receiving a sentence of life imprisonment.[1] Wright's status as an NBA player and local celebrity in Memphis led to the prosecution of his murder being highly publicized.[2][3]

Early life and college

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Raised in Oxford, Mississippi, Wright played for Lafayette High School[4] in Mississippi before moving to Memphis, where he spent his senior year playing for Booker T. Washington High School.[5] He played all levels of basketball in Memphis – high school, collegiate, and professional. His father, Herb, was a professional basketball player who competed in Finland, and once had a tryout with the Utah Jazz. When Wright was seven years old, Herb was working for the Memphis Police Department when he was paralyzed by a gunshot to the back.[6]

Wright was recognized as a Third Team All-American by the Associated Press as a sophomore at the University of Memphis. Wright was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.

Professional career

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Wright was selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1996 NBA draft out of the University of Memphis. On April 26, 1997, as a rookie, Wright scored what would be a postseason career-high 17 points in a Game 2 loss against the Utah Jazz.[7] The Clippers would go on to lose the series. The following season, on December 26, 1997, Wright scored a season-high 32 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.[8] Wright moved on to the Atlanta Hawks in 1999, and averaged a career high 12.4 points per game with them during the 2000-01 NBA season.[9] He was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies on June 27, 2001. On January 6, 2003, Wright scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a 106-102 win over the New Orleans Hornets.[10] Wright returned to the Hawks in 2006.

On February 16, 2008, he was involved in a multiplayer trade, going from Atlanta to Sacramento for Mike Bibby.[11]

He held career averages of 8.0 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, playing in 778 (793 including playoffs) NBA games over 13 seasons.

Personal life

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In 2000, Wright and three native-Memphis NBA players, Todd Day, Penny Hardaway and Elliot Perry, provided financial assistance to Travis Butler, a Memphis orphan whose tragic story garnered national attention.[12]

Wright founded the Sierra Simone Wright Scholarship Fund after the death of his infant daughter in March 2003.

In 2003, Wright returned to the University of Memphis to finish his degree.

Disappearance and death

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On July 18, 2010, Wright left his ex-wife's home in Collierville, Tennessee. This was the last time he was seen alive.[13] His family filed a missing-persons report on July 22, 2010.[14][15] Wright's body was found 6 days later in a wooded area on Callis-Cutoff Road, just west of Hacks Cross Road.

In the early-morning hours of July 19, 2010, a 911 call from Wright's cell phone was received by the 911 dispatch center in Germantown, Tennessee. The caller was speaking with the dispatcher when 11 gunshots rang out.[16] The dispatcher did not report the call to her supervisor until July 28, 10 days after Lorenzen was last seen. Why it took that long remains a question, but this hindering the police investigation resulted in a payout to Wright's family.[6] The case was investigated as a homicide.[17] Wright's body is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2011, a reward for information related to the killing stood at $21,000; the state of Tennessee contributed $10,000, the city of Memphis and the Memphis Grizzlies each promised $5,000, and Crime Stoppers promised $1,000.[18]

On November 9, 2017, the gun believed to have been used to murder Wright was found in a lake in Walnut, Mississippi.[19] On December 5, 2017, Billy R. Turner, a landscaper and church deacon at Mt. Olive No. 1 Missionary Baptist Church in Collierville, was indicted on first-degree murder charges and held on $1 million bond.[13]

On December 15, 2017, Wright's ex-wife Sherra Wright-Robinson was arrested in Riverside, California in connection with the murder. Wright-Robinson was a former member of Turner's church.[20] The seven-year investigation into his death was one of the Memphis Police Department's more high-profile unsolved cases. Wright's mother, Deborah Marion, told The Commercial Appeal that a police official told her Wright-Robinson would be charged with first-degree murder, the same charge Turner faced. Marion said she believes her former daughter-in-law was motivated by money, specifically a life insurance policy for $1 million held by Lorenzen Wright.[21][22]

In a 2015 article in The Commercial Appeal, Wright-Robinson explained how she inquired early in the investigation whether she was a suspect. "They was like, no, you know," she said. "It was just kind of a person of interest. They said that the list was long and wide and they didn't have any real suspects, if you want to quote that."

Records showed that on August 1, 2010, Memphis police searched her home and found burned pieces of metal and a letter addressed to Lorenzen Wright and her, but law enforcement at that time did not say what the items meant to investigators.

In 2014, Wright-Robinson agreed to a confidential settlement of a dispute in circuit court over how she spent the $1 million of insurance money meant to benefit their six children.[23]

On July 25, 2019, Wright-Robinson pleaded guilty to facilitation of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Lorenzen Wright and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.[24]

See also

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NBA career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1996–97 L.A. Clippers 77 51 25.1 .481 .250 .587 6.1 .6 .6 .8 7.3
1997–98 L.A. Clippers 69 38 30.0 .445 .000 .659 8.8 .8 .8 1.3 9.0
1998–99 L.A. Clippers 48 15 23.6 .458 .000 .692 7.5 .7 .5 .8 6.6
1999–2000 Atlanta 75 0 16.1 .499 .333 .644 4.1 .3 .4 .5 6.0
2000–01 Atlanta 71 46 28.0 .448 .000 .718 7.5 1.2 .6 .9 12.4
2001–02 Memphis 43 33 29.1 .459 .000 .569 9.4 1.0 .7 .5 12.0
2002–03 Memphis 70 49 28.3 .454 .000 .659 7.5 1.1 .7 .8 11.4
2003–04 Memphis 65 46 25.8 .439 .000 .733 6.8 1.1 .7 .9 9.4
2004–05 Memphis 80 77 28.6 .469 .000 .662 7.7 1.1 .7 .9 9.6
2005–06 Memphis 78 58 21.7 .478 .000 .564 5.1 .6 .7 .6 5.8
2006–07 Atlanta 67 31 15.4 .448 .000 .281 3.2 .6 .4 .4 2.6
2007–08 Atlanta 13 1 11.4 .294 .000 .500 2.8 .2 .2 .2 1.0
2007–08 Sacramento 5 0 2.6 .250 .000 .000 .2 .2 .0 .0 .4
2008–09 Cleveland 17 2 7.4 .370 .000 .375 1.5 .2 .2 .3 1.4
Career 778 447 23.8 .459 .069 .645 6.4 .8 .6 .7 8.0

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1997 L.A. Clippers 3 3 30.7 .406 .000 1.000 7.3 .7 1.0 .7 10.3
2004 Memphis 4 4 25.0 .435 .000 .333 4.3 .5 1.0 .5 5.5
2005 Memphis 4 4 21.3 .571 .000 .500 5.0 2.3 .3 .3 8.3
2006 Memphis 4 0 21.5 .611 .000 .700 5.0 .8 .0 1.0 7.3
Career 15 11 24.2 .495 .000 .652 5.3 1.1 .5 .6 7.7

References

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  1. ^ Watts, Micaela A. "Jury finds Billy Ray Turner guilty in killing of former NBA star Lorenzen Wright". USA TODAY. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  2. ^ "Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife wants plea thrown out". ESPN.com. June 8, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  3. ^ "Trial set in slaying of NBA's Lorenzen Wright". ESPN.com. June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  4. ^ Consulting, Fine Line Websites & IT; Review, The Draft (July 30, 2010). "The Draft Review". The Draft Review. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  5. ^ "With trial date set in death of NBA player Lorenzen Wright, his mother now can 'breathe'". The Commercial Appeal.
  6. ^ a b Wertheim, Jon (October 18, 2015). "Who killed Lorenzen Wright? Murder still a mystery". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  7. ^ "1997 NBA Western Conference First Round Game 2: Clippers vs Jazz, April 26, 1997". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "Clippers vs Lakers, December 26, 1997". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Lorenzen Wright Per Game Stats
  10. ^ "Hornets vs Grizzlies, January 6, 2003". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  11. ^ "Kings trading Bibby to Hawks for 4 players". ESPN.com. February 16, 2008.
  12. ^ "NBA Players Donate $10,000 To Memphis Boy Who Lived With Mother's Corpse". Jet. 97 (7): 50. January 24, 2000.
  13. ^ a b Fretland, Katie; Connolly, Daniel; Moore, Linda A.; Jones, Yolanda (December 5, 2017). "Lorenzen Wright killing: Shelby County man arrested, charged with murder in death of former NBA player". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  14. ^ Lorenzen Wright: Former Tigers & Grizzlies Player Missing, Accessed July 23, 2010 Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Gabriel Falcon, CNN (July 27, 2010). "Police investigate disappearance of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright". CNN.com. Retrieved July 28, 2010. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ Goetz, Kristina. "Missing Memphis basketball star Lorenzen Wright found dead". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved July 30, 2010.
  17. ^ "Police: Former NBA big man Lorenzen Wright was shot to death - NBA - SI.com". Sports Illustrated. July 29, 2010. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  18. ^ Connolly, Daniel (November 13, 2017). "$21,000 reward available for tips in homicide of basketball standout Lorenzen Wright". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  19. ^ Fretland, Katie; Perrusquia, Marc (November 9, 2017). "Memphis police: Gun suspected in Lorenzen Wright case recovered in Mississippi lake". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  20. ^ "Lorenzen Wright's Ex-Wife, Sherra, Arrested In California. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  21. ^ "Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife Sherra Wright arrested in California, charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy". USA Today.
  22. ^ "Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife Sherra arrested in California in connection with his death". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  23. ^ "CA Investigation: Memphis police no closer to finding star's killer 5 years later". Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  24. ^ "Ex-wife of slain former NBA player pleads guilty". Retrieved July 25, 2019.
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