Lorenzen Wright

Lorenzen Wright
Personal information
Born (1975-11-04)November 4, 1975
Memphis, Tennessee
Died July, 2010 (aged 34)
Memphis, Tennessee
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Listed weight 255 lb (116 kg)
Career information
High school Booker T. Washington
(Memphis, Tennessee)
College Memphis (1994–1996)
NBA draft 1996 / Round: 1 / Pick: 7th overall
Selected by the Los Angeles Clippers
Playing career 1996–2009
Position Power forward / Center
Number 55, 42
Career history
1996–1999 Los Angeles Clippers
1999–2001 Atlanta Hawks
2001–2006 Memphis Grizzlies
2006–2008 Atlanta Hawks
2008 Sacramento Kings
2008–2009 Cleveland Cavaliers
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 6,191 (7.9 ppg)
Rebounds 4,943 (6.3 rpg)
Assists 622 (0.8 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Men’s Basketball
Representing  United States
Summer Universiade
1995 Fukuoka Team competition

Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright (November 4, 1975 – July 19, 2010[1]) was an American professional basketball player who played thirteen seasons in the National Basketball Association.

Early life and college

Raised in Oxford, Mississippi, Wright played all levels of basketball in Memphis – high school, collegiate and professional. Wright was selected a Third Team All-America by the Associated Press as a sophomore at the University of Memphis.

Professional career

After being selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1996 NBA Draft out of the University of Memphis, Wright moved on to the Atlanta Hawks in 1999. He was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001, but returned to the Hawks in 2006.

On February 16, 2008, he was involved in a multi-player trade, going from Atlanta to Sacramento for Mike Bibby.[2]

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

Wright founded the Sierra Simone Wright Scholarship Fund after the death of his infant daughter in March 2003. During the summer of 2003, he returned to the University of Memphis to finish his degree. His father Herb was a professional basketball player who competed in Finland. He was survived by his parents and six children.

During his first stint in Atlanta, Wright and three other Memphis-native NBA players (Todd Day, Penny Hardaway and Elliot Perry) provided financial assistance to Travis Butler, a Memphis orphan whose tragic story garnered national attention.[3]

Wright was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and was initiated in spring 1996 to the Kappa Beta Chapter.

Disappearance and death

Wright left his ex-wife's home in Collierville, Tennessee on July 18, 2010, and was not seen or heard from again. His family filed a missing persons report on July 22.[4][5] After Wright's body was found on July 28 in a wooded area on Callis Cutoff Road just west of Hacks Cross Road, it was reported that a 9-1-1 call had been received from his cell phone in the early morning of July 19 by the Germantown, Tennessee 911 dispatch center; the caller was speaking with the dispatcher when gunshots rang out.[6] The case is being investigated as a homicide.[7] Wright's body is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. As of 2016, the case remains unsolved because the emergency call was not traced and diverted properly.[8]

NBA career statistics

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

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
1999–00 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

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New Details In The Lorenzen Wright Mystery" ABC 24 Eyewitness News, Memphis July 28, 2010
  2. ↑ Kings sending guard Bibby to Hawks for four players
  3. ↑ "NBA Players Donate $10,000 To Memphis Boy Who Lived With Mother's Corpse | Jet | Find Articles at BNET". Findarticles.com. 2000. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  4. ↑ Lorenzen Wright: Former Tigers & Grizzlies Player Missing, Accessed July 23, 2010
  5. ↑ Gabriel Falcon, CNN (July 27, 2010). "Police investigate disappearance of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright". CNN.com. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  6. ↑ Goetz, Kristina. "Missing Memphis basketball star Lorenzen Wright found dead". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. ↑ Who Killed Lorenzen Wright? - Part One
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