Lorenzen Wright

Actor · 1975 – 2010 · Oxford, Mississippi, USA

Lorenzen Vern-Gagne Wright (November 4, 1975 – July 19, 2010; ht: 6'11") 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 Cavalier. 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. He and his ex-wife Sherra divorced in January 2010; they had 7 children, one of whom passed as an infant from SIDS. He founded the Sierra Simone Wright Scholarship Fund after the death of his infant daughter in March 2003. He went missing on July 18, 2010, and was found shot to death ten days later in a wooded area. 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. From Wikipedia.