Lorenzen Wright
Encyclopedia
Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright (November 4, 1975 – July 2010) was an American
professional basketball
player.
, 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
.
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
.
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.
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.
Wright was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi
fraternity; initiated Spring 1996 to the Kappa Beta Chapter.
on July 18, 2010, and was not seen or heard from again. His family filed a missing persons report on July 22. 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 gun shots rang out. The case is being investigated as a homicide
. Wright's body is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee
.
| style="text-align:left;"| 1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 77 || 51 || 25.1 || .481 || .250 || .587 || 6.1 || .6 || .6 || .8 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 69 || 38 || 30.0 || .445 || .000 || .659 || 8.8 || .8 || .8 || 1.3 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 48 || 15 || 23.6 || .458 || .000 || .692 || 7.5 || .7 || .5 || .8 || 6.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 75 || 0 || 16.1 || .499 || .333 || .644 || 4.1 || .3 || .4 || .5 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2000–01
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 71 || 46 || 28.0 || .448 || .000 || .718 || 7.5 || 1.2 || .6 || .9 || 12.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2001–02
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 43 || 33 || 29.1 || .459 || .000 || .569 || 9.4 || 1.0 || .7 || .5 || 12.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2002–03
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 70 || 49 || 28.3 || .454 || .000 || .659 || 7.5 || 1.1 || .7 || .8 || 11.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2003–04
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 65 || 46 || 25.8 || .439 || .000 || .733 || 6.8 || 1.1 || .7 || .9 || 9.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2004–05
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 80 || 77 || 28.6 || .469 || .000 || .662 || 7.7 || 1.1 || .7 || .9 || 9.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 78 || 58 || 21.7 || .478 || .000 || .564 || 5.1 || .6 || .7 || .6 || 5.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 67 || 31 || 15.4 || .448 || .000 || .281 || 3.2 || .6 || .4 || .4 || 2.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 13 || 1 || 11.4 || .294 || .000 || .500 || 2.8 || .2 || .2 || .2 || 1.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08
| style="text-align:left;"| Sacramento
| 5 || 0 || 2.6 || .250 || .000 || .000 || .2 || .2 || .0 || .0 || .4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2008–09
| style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland
| 17 || 2 || 7.4 || .370 || .000 || .375 || 1.5 || .2 || .2 || .3 || 1.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| Career
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 778 || 447 || 23.8 || .459 || .069 || .645 || 6.4 || .8 || .6 || .7 || 8.0
| style="text-align:left;"| 1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 3 || 3 || 30.7 || .406 || .000 || 1.000 || 7.3 || .7 || 1.0 || .7 || 10.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2003–04
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 4 || 4 || 25.0 || .435 || .000 || .333 || 4.3 || .5 || 1.0 || .5 || 5.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2004–05
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 4 || 4 || 21.3 || .571 || .000 || .500 || 5.0 || 2.3 || .2 || .2 || 8.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 4 || 0 || 21.5 || .611 || .000 || .700 || 5.0 || .8 || .0 || 1.0 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| Career
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 15 || 11 || 24.2 || .495 || .000 || .652 || 5.3 || 1.1 || .5 || .6 || 7.7
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player.
Early life and college
Raised in Oxford, MississippiOxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
, 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
University of Memphis
The University of Memphis is an American public research university located in the Normal Station neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee and is the flagship public research university of the Tennessee Board of Regents system....
.
Professional career
After being selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles ClippersLos Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
in the 1996 NBA Draft
1996 NBA Draft
The 1996 NBA Draft was the 50th draft in the National Basketball Association . It was held on June 26, 1996 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The draft was broadcast in the United States on the Turner Network Television...
out of the University of Memphis
University of Memphis
The University of Memphis is an American public research university located in the Normal Station neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee and is the flagship public research university of the Tennessee Board of Regents system....
, Wright moved on to the Atlanta Hawks in 1999. He was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The team is part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Along with the Toronto Raptors, the Grizzlies were established in 1995 as part of the NBA's...
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
Mike Bibby
Michael "Mike" Bibby is an American professional basketball player who most recently played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. He is a 6'2" point guard, and he attended Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona and played collegiately at the University of Arizona. In...
.
He held career averages of 8.0 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, playing in 778 (793 including playoffs
NBA Playoffs
The National Basketball Association Playoffs is a best-of-seven elimination tournament among sixteen teams in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference , ultimately deciding the final four teams who will play in the NBA Conference Finals.-Format:Following the NBA regular season, eight teams in...
) 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.During his first stint in Atlanta, Wright and three other Memphis-native NBA players (Todd Day
Todd Day
Todd Fitzgerald Day is a retired American professional basketball player. Day is the all-time leading scorer at the University of Arkansas, and played eight seasons in the NBA...
, Penny Hardaway
Penny Hardaway
Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway is a former American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association , specializing as a small forward, shooting guard, and point guard. His most productive years came in his days as a member of the Orlando Magic as well as the early...
and Elliot Perry
Elliot Perry
Elliot Lamonte Perry is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.The 6'0" point guard from Memphis State University , was selected with the tenth pick of the second round by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1991 NBA Draft...
) provided financial assistance to Travis Butler, a Memphis orphan whose tragic story garnered national attention.
Wright was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi is a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity with a predominantly African American membership. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never limited membership based on color, creed or national origin...
fraternity; initiated Spring 1996 to the Kappa Beta Chapter.
Disappearance and death
Wright left his ex-wife's home in Collierville, TennesseeCollierville, Tennessee
Collierville is a town in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and a suburb located in the Memphis metropolitan area. The town had a population of 43,965 at the 2010 census....
on July 18, 2010, and was not seen or heard from again. His family filed a missing persons report on July 22. 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
9-1-1
9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan .It is one of eight N11 codes.The use of this number is for emergency circumstances only, and to use it for any other purpose can be a crime.-History:In the earliest days of telephone technology, prior to the...
call had been received from his cell phone in the early morning of July 19 by the Germantown, Tennessee
Germantown, Tennessee
Germantown is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee. The population was 38,844 at the 2010 census.Germantown is a suburb of Memphis, bordering it to the east. Germantown's economy is dominated by the retail and commercial service sectors; there is no heavy industry in Germantown...
911 dispatch center; the caller was speaking with the dispatcher when gun shots rang out. The case is being investigated as a homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
. Wright's body is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
.
Regular season
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 1996–97
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
| 77 || 51 || 25.1 || .481 || .250 || .587 || 6.1 || .6 || .6 || .8 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1997–98
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 69 || 38 || 30.0 || .445 || .000 || .659 || 8.8 || .8 || .8 || 1.3 || 9.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1998–99
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
| 48 || 15 || 23.6 || .458 || .000 || .692 || 7.5 || .7 || .5 || .8 || 6.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1999–00
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are part of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association .-The first years:...
| 75 || 0 || 16.1 || .499 || .333 || .644 || 4.1 || .3 || .4 || .5 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2000–01
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 71 || 46 || 28.0 || .448 || .000 || .718 || 7.5 || 1.2 || .6 || .9 || 12.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2001–02
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The team is part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Along with the Toronto Raptors, the Grizzlies were established in 1995 as part of the NBA's...
| 43 || 33 || 29.1 || .459 || .000 || .569 || 9.4 || 1.0 || .7 || .5 || 12.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2002–03
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 70 || 49 || 28.3 || .454 || .000 || .659 || 7.5 || 1.1 || .7 || .8 || 11.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2003–04
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 65 || 46 || 25.8 || .439 || .000 || .733 || 6.8 || 1.1 || .7 || .9 || 9.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2004–05
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 80 || 77 || 28.6 || .469 || .000 || .662 || 7.7 || 1.1 || .7 || .9 || 9.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 78 || 58 || 21.7 || .478 || .000 || .564 || 5.1 || .6 || .7 || .6 || 5.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2006–07
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 67 || 31 || 15.4 || .448 || .000 || .281 || 3.2 || .6 || .4 || .4 || 2.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 13 || 1 || 11.4 || .294 || .000 || .500 || 2.8 || .2 || .2 || .2 || 1.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2007–08
| style="text-align:left;"| Sacramento
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
| 5 || 0 || 2.6 || .250 || .000 || .000 || .2 || .2 || .0 || .0 || .4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2008–09
2008–09 NBA season
The 2008–09 NBA season was the 63rd season of the National Basketball Association . The 1,230-game regular season began on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, and ended on Wednesday, April 15, 2009...
| style="text-align:left;"| Cleveland
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing in the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team...
| 17 || 2 || 7.4 || .370 || .000 || .375 || 1.5 || .2 || .2 || .3 || 1.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| Career
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 778 || 447 || 23.8 || .459 || .069 || .645 || 6.4 || .8 || .6 || .7 || 8.0
Playoffs
|-| style="text-align:left;"| 1996–97
1997 NBA Playoffs
The 1997 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1996–97 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Chicago Bulls winning the NBA championship by defeating the Western Conference champion Utah Jazzfour games to two...
| style="text-align:left;"| LA Clippers
Los Angeles Clippers
The Los Angeles Clippers are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
| 3 || 3 || 30.7 || .406 || .000 || 1.000 || 7.3 || .7 || 1.0 || .7 || 10.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2003–04
2004 NBA Playoffs
The 2004 NBA Playoffs were the postseason of the National Basketball Association's 2003–04 season. Consisting of 16 teams in two conferences, the playoffs involved about two months of play. The playoffs were conducted in seven-game series, with the team with the better record holding home court...
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
Memphis Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The team is part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Along with the Toronto Raptors, the Grizzlies were established in 1995 as part of the NBA's...
| 4 || 4 || 25.0 || .435 || .000 || .333 || 4.3 || .5 || 1.0 || .5 || 5.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2004–05
2005 NBA Playoffs
The 2005 NBA Playoffs was the postseason of the National Basketball Association's 2004–05 season.The San Antonio Spurs, the number two ranked team in the Western Conference, won the 2005 NBA Playoffs by defeating the defending champions, the Detroit Pistons, 4-3 in the NBA Finals...
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 4 || 4 || 21.3 || .571 || .000 || .500 || 5.0 || 2.3 || .2 || .2 || 8.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 2005–06
2006 NBA Playoffs
The 2006 NBA Playoffs was the postseason of the National Basketball Association's 2005–06 season. The Miami Heat won the first championship in the history of the franchise by defeating the Dallas Mavericks 4-2 in the 2006 NBA Finals...
| style="text-align:left;"| Memphis
| 4 || 0 || 21.5 || .611 || .000 || .700 || 5.0 || .8 || .0 || 1.0 || 7.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| Career
| style="text-align:left;"|
| 15 || 11 || 24.2 || .495 || .000 || .652 || 5.3 || 1.1 || .5 || .6 || 7.7