Topics: NBA, Basketball, Kobe Bryant
The 1996 NBA draft is remembered for providing one of the most talent-packed rookie classes in league's history.
Iconic guard Allen Iverson was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the first overall pick, and fellow future NBA MVPs Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash were picked later in the draft.
In addition to those basketball megastars, there were multiple-time future All-Stars such as Ray Allen, Stephon Marbury, Antoine Walker and Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the 1996 draft too.
Lorenzen Wright never made an All-Star team but, taken by the Los Angeles Clippers with the seventh overall pick – six spots ahead of Bryant – the 6ft 11ins centre enjoyed a solid NBA career.
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He spent three years with the Clippers before spells with his hometown Memphis Grizzlies, the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings at Cleveland Cavaliers – where he played alongside LeBron James.
Wright retired in 2009 with 793 games under his belt from a 13-year NBA career, boasting averages of eight points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
Just a year after retiring, Wright as killed in tragic and mysterious circumstances.
Last seen leaving the house of his ex-wife, Sherra Wright-Robinson, in Collierville, Tennessee, he went missing for 10 days before his body was found in some nearby woodland area.
Wright had been shot to death. And it later emerged that he had made a 911 call from his mobile phone during which the dispatcher heard the sound of 11 gunshots on the other side of the line.
The case was investigated as homicide but – despite the offer of a $21,000 reward for information – it remained unsolved for several years.
Eventually, in 2019, the former basketball star's ex-wife, Wright-Robinson, pleaded guilty to facilitation of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Lorenzen Wright and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Three years later, a jury found Wright-Robinson's accomplice, Billy Ray Turner, guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy.
“Thank you, Jesus! He can suffer like I’ve been suffering all this time, without my son,” Wright's mother, Deborah Marion, told a local TV news station. “It’s a celebration for me.”
