Listen Live
CLOSE

Before he went missing a week ago, former Atlanta Hawks power forward Lorenzen Wright split his time between Atlanta and Memphis.

He attended a couple Hawks playoff games this spring, supporting his friend Josh Smith.

In January, Wright ran into Hawks vice president of public relations Arthur Triche at a restaurant, where they watched the BCS championship game.

“He was still the same outgoing, gregarious individual he always was,” Triche told the AJC. “Nothing would have led us to believe something like this would happen.”

Wright spoke then of catching on with another NBA team. But he did not play at all last season, ending a 13-year career that included two stints with the Hawks.

Triche said he was unaware of Wright’s alleged financial problems: the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported his custom-built 17-room home in Eads, Tenn., was repossessed in May for $1.3 million, and that his Atlanta house was repossessed in January for $1.1 million.

“We don’t know what to make of it,” Triche said. “We just hope the situation turns out positive for him and his family.”

Police are stumped by Wright’s disappearance.

On July 22, Wright’s mother flagged down a police car in Collierville (Tenn.), about 20 miles east of Memphis, and filed the missing person report.

Wright was at his ex-wife’s house in Collierville the night of July 18.

“He went to [Collierville to] check on his kids,” Lt. Norm Dixon of the Collierville police said.

Wright apparently left while his ex-wife was asleep — at 2 a.m. Police assume he was picked up by someone. Dixon said the ex-wife’s neighborhood was “very safe and affluent.”

Read More