Money the motive behind ex-wife’s 2010 plot to kill retired NBA player Lorenzen Wright: report

‘I was hearing that Sherra was wanting to get pregnant and marry Lorenzen, assuming that he was going to be this great NBA basketball player,’ Wright’s friend Montae Nevels says

Former NBA player Lorenzen Wright was found in Mississippi dead of multiple gunshot wounds back in 2010 after being reported missing days before in Tennessee.

In July 2019, his ex-wife, Sherra WrightRobinson, pleaded guilty to facilitating his death. An ABC “20/20 report that aired Friday detailed the circumstances around his death and the rocky relationship Wright-Robinson had with him and his mother, Deborah Marion. Money, including a six-figure life insurance policy, is said to be at the center of his slaying.

“I hope the truth comes out,” Wright’s friend Phil Dotson said in the news package.

Lorenzen Wright #42 of the Memphis Grizzlies shoots a free throw during Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals against the San Antonio Spurs at the SBC Center on April 17, 2004 in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Lorenzen Wright #42 of the Memphis Grizzlies shoots a free throw during Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals against the San Antonio Spurs at the SBC Center on April 17, 2004 in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

According to the report, Wright-Robinson, who married Wright during his stint with the Los Angeles Clippers, had claimed the $1 million check from the insurance policy after his July 2010 murder. The killing came months after the two divorced.

Those closest to the former ballplayer contest that his ex-wife’s main intent, from the start of their relationship, was to get money from Wright.

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“I was hearing that Sherra was wanting to get pregnant and marry Lorenzen, assuming that he was going to be this great NBA basketball player,” said Montae Nevels, a friend of Wright’s in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

Wright played in the NBA for five teams over 13 seasons. He was drafted in the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft, behind future stars Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury and ahead of Kobe Bryant.

It was estimated that Wright made more than $55 million in his NBA career. However, he and his wife had spent much of it by the time of his retirement in 2009.

READ MORE: Ex-wife of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright pleads guilty to facilitating his murder

Nevels said, “just as fast as he was making money, money was being spent.”

The couple split in February 2010 after numerous years of cheating by both of them. However, the report stated they were on the road to reconciliation before Wright went missing.

After receiving the $1 million insurance settlement, Sherra spent nearly all of it within a year on expensive trips, cars and a mansion. His family tried to remove her as an estate trustee in an effort to preserve any remaining funds for their six children.

“When you’re the mother of six kids and you’re married to their father, and you would [want to] see him dead, that’s just evil,” Nevels said. “That’s wicked.”

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