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.
By 2009, Lorenzen Wright's 13-season, $55 million NBA career was over and so was his marriage to Sherra, his wife of 11 years.
The two who'd been brought together by basketball, had seven children and lost one, were calling it quits.
The 12,000-square-foot mansion in Eads, Tennessee, they bought in 2008 for $2.7 million was sold on the courthouse steps. Their million-dollar home in Atlanta eventually went into foreclosure, too. It was just a sign of the turmoil.
Their divorce was final in February 2010 — five months before Lorenzen was killed.