Lorenzen Wright's voice was last heard on a desperate 911 call in July of 2010, but his story — and the path that led him to that moment — began long before that fateful night.
WREG TV began covering Wright from the time he emerged on the local high school basketball scene in Memphis in the early 1990s, through his college playing days at the University of Memphis and his 13-year run in the NBA, including playing on his home turf with the Memphis Grizzlies. He was considered by many to be a shining star.
Killing Lorenzen: Love | Basketball | Murder is an investigative podcast by WREG's investigative team about the life and death of Lorenzen Wright, and his ex-wife Sherra Wright, now sitting behind bars after pleading guilty to facilitating his murder, nearly nine years to the day later.
A new last name and a new city to call home.
The Oxford, Mississippi native who’d been born Lorenzen Vassar took his father’s last name during his final years of high school and would soon relocate to his dad’s hometown of Memphis for his senior year.
Memphis meant big-time exposure for Lorenzen’s basketball career — in Memphis, basketball is a way of life, and he was a major NBA prospect.
It also meant spending even more time with his new girl.
The distance between Oxford and Memphis is only 80 miles, but the path it would put Lorenzen on — and the new person he was sharing it with — would change his life forever.