I – Mr. Tell Me Anything – When they finally found him, 10 days after he was last seen alive, the 6-foot-11 man who held an outsize place in his city’s heart was diminished. The bullet-ridden, decomposing corpse weighed just 57 pounds. A family was torn apart. Memphis mourned. And for more than seven years the case ran cold … until now. The stunning arrests of the victim’s ex-wife and a local deacon in connection with the murder have reopened the wounds and only deepened the mystery of why a man was cut down at age 34, on the verge of writing a comeback story for his professional basketball career. Even if the suspects — who proclaim their innocence — are indeed the killers, the motive and the details remain the stuff of fevered speculation in a town all too familiar with the blues. Was it drugs? Insurance money? Revenge? What happened to Lorenzen Wright?

Lorenzen Wright #42 of the Memphis Grizzlies shoots against the Phoenix Suns in game four of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2005 NBA Playoffs at the FedExForum on May 1, 2005 in Memphis, Tennessee.

– image credit: Andy Lyons/Getty –

The two suspects said one word between them at the March court hearing. Sherra Wright-Robinson — now a withdrawn shell of the fashionable millionaire who once cut a high-profile figure around Memphis — uttered “yes” when asked if she understood the proceedings. Three attorneys away, local laborer and deacon Billy Ray Turner, bespectacled and dressed in a green prison jumpsuit, was silent. The path to their appearance in the Shelby County Courthouse on charges of murdering Wright begins more than a quarter-century ago. Sherra and Lorenzen started dating after he moved from Oxford, Mississippi, to Memphis — the basketball and blues capital of the South known as Bluff City for its location on the Mississippi River — for his senior year of high school. He was the city’s top basketball prospect, starring at South Memphis’ Booker T. Washington High, and she was the daughter of his AAU coach, Julius Robinson. Although she was 23, six years older than Wright, they hit it off — Lorenzen, the local phenom, and Sherra, his queen. He chose to stay close for college, signing with the hometown Memphis Tigers, and their family grew quickly. Lorenzen Wright Jr. was born during his father’s freshman year on campus. In 2003, their seventh child, Sierra, died of sudden infant death syndrome. It was a devastating loss for a couple that soon would be on a rocky path.

Sherra Wright-Robinson in Shelby County Criminal Court for her March 19 arraignment. Authorities allege that Wright-Robinson made a previous murder attempt on her ex-husband, who was last seen leaving her home on July 18, 2010.

– image credit: Andrea Morales –

Years of alleged infidelity from both parties and money woes also took a toll as Wright’s 14-year NBA career neared a close. The 1996 first-round draft pick, who spent five seasons playing for his hometown Memphis Grizzlies, was notoriously generous in the community — to a fault, some say. By the time the Wrights officially divorced, in 2009, the good times were coming to an end for the couple that was known for dressing well, driving fast and dining out with the Memphis public. “They didn’t hide their wealth,” says Jarvis Greer, a former Memphis Tigers football player who, as sports director at WMC Action News, covered Wright’s career at every level. In 2010, Wright’s NBA money was drying up. His million-dollar home in Atlanta was repossessed, and he soon struggled to pay his ex-wife the court-ordered $26,000 a month in child support. Following Wright’s death, neighbors in the Memphis suburb of Collierville told the New York Daily News that, during that final year of Wright’s life, his ex-wife often walked the streets “acting strange” and was overheard “making demands for more money” on her phone. Wendy Wilson, a former personal assistant to Wright, urged police to “look hard at his ex-wife” and later claimed to have voice recordings of Sherra threatening Lorenzen. Neighbors also reported that on the night of July 19, 2010, the day after Wright was seen leaving his ex-wife’s house, Wright-Robinson and a male friend held a backyard bonfire — on one of the hottest days of the year. In the years that have followed, Wright-Robinson and the four youngest children — all minors at the time of the murder — have been on the move. First they went to Houston in 2015, and then to the Los Angeles area in early 2017. Before the move to Houston, Wright-Robinson divorced her second husband, Reginald Robinson, a Shelby County sheriff’s deputy. She has since remarried. Wright’s children, ages 12 to 23 today, are scattered between Tennessee and California. Lorenzen Jr. recently finished his senior season at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Twin boys Lamar and Shamar, 18, have blossomed into stars on the Southern California high school circuit. Recently, Shamar became the first player in Murrieta Mesa High School’s history to be named to the first-team all-state. As seniors, the twins appear likely to do a post–high school graduation year before playing in college. For years, Wright’s mother, Deborah Marion, has been fighting for custody of her grandchildren amid pleas for Memphis police to investigate Wright-Robinson (she believes Sherra killed her son for a $1 million insurance policy). Now, only the youngest daughter, Sofia, remains eligible for adoption. “This has been difficult to explain,” Marion says. “I’m close to getting what I want for my son, but now I’ve got to work on getting my youngest grandchild.” Wright-Robinson told authorities that six weeks before Wright’s death, three men in trench coats came looking for him. To be sure, there’s no crime in alimony squabbles or out-of-season bonfires, but Wright-Robinson’s timeline has grown increasingly bizarre since she first reported her ex-husband missing. Initially, Wright-Robinson told police that Wright left home carrying money and a box of drugs and that he told someone on the phone he was going to “flip something for $110,000.” Then, two days before Wright’s corpse was discovered, another frightening detail emerged. Wright-Robinson told authorities that six weeks before his death, three men in trench coats came looking for Wright. This led some to propose another theory. In 2008, according to federal documents, Wright sold two luxury vehicles to Bobby Cole, a drag racer known throughout Memphis for his connection to the city’s longtime drug kingpin, Craig Petties. So, could a hit man have been sent after Wright? There’s little doubt that Wright kept company with questionable characters involved in the Memphis gang scene, and the defense team will surely try to show that Wright’s own nefarious activity led to the former NBA star’s undoing. The Memphians we spoke to acknowledge that rumors about Wright becoming involved in drug trafficking were commonplace toward the end of his career. “Once you live a certain lifestyle, it’s hard to go back to cheese and crackers,” says Greer. “But that will have to come out in the investigation.”

Wright’s young children, friends and family mourn his death at FedExForum in Memphis, home of the Grizzlies. Hundreds of fans filled the stands to pay respects to the hometown star at the open memorial service.

– image credit: Lance Murphey AP Photo –