Herbert Wright Jr. is lucky to be alive. The former Memphis star basketball player was nearly killed in a 1983 shooting. Confined to a wheelchair, Wright overcame this career-ending tragedy to become a very successful college basketball coach. His extreme fortitude since the shooting is even more inspiring than his brilliant basketball career before that fateful day. Wright never played basketball at Melrose High School in Memphis, but his love for the game grew by leaps and bounds, as he developed a forty-two inch vertical jump! In the fall of 1972, Wright enrolled at Shelby State Community College, where he became All-Conference and all-state before accepting a scholarship to the University of Mississippi. After earning a degree, he starred in Finland, averaging thirty-eight points and nineteen rebounds. To be a world class athlete one day and confined to a wheelchair the next is devastating. Amazingly, not only did Wright never give up, he flourished. As coach of women’s basketball at Shelby State from 1984 to 1996, he led his teams to more than 160 wins. His 1984-1985 squad went 27-3 and finished third in the nation. Carrying on the family tradition, Wright’s oldest son, Lorenzen, was a first round NBA pick in 1997. And youngest son, Lou, seems destined for greatness as well. With a father as inspirational as Herbert Wright Jr., it is no surprise that his boys would know the hard work, courage, and commitment necessary to succeed in basketball and in life.
