Lorenzen Wright's Children are His Great Legacy - His Twin Sons Also Play Basketball

NBA player Lorenzen Wright died in Memphis in 2010, the victim of a vicious murder. His six surviving children cherish his memory and have continued his legacy.

In 2010, NBA player Lorenzen Wright died and left six surviving children by his ex-wife Sherra Wright-Robinson. The circumstances of his death brought added instability into the children's lives.

Lorenzen Jr, then 15 years old, was the oldest of six, and the youngest, Sofia, was still a baby. Over a decade after Lorenzen's death, he is still a major influence in his children's life.

Lorenzen Wright was born on November 4, 1975, in Oxford, Mississippi, but he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, during high school. It was in Memphis that his basketball amateur and pro career took off.

Lorenzen went to the University of Memphis on an athletic scholarship and joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. The Los Angeles Clippers recruited him straight out of college in the 1996 NBA Draft.

Over his 13-season career, Lorenzen played for the Atlanta Hawks, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Sacramento Kings; his last season was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Lorenzen tried his hand at acting and guested on the 1996 TV series "The Sentinel." He was also featured in two TV specials about basketball, "1996 NBA Draft" and 2003's "Rome Is Burning."

Lorenzen Wright's Big Family

Lorenzen met Sherra Wright-Robinson, his basketball coach's daughter when they were both in high school, and the couple welcomed their first child, Lorenzen Wright Jr., while the player was still at the University of Memphis. Friend Montae Nevels said:

"She was easy on the eyes. I don’t think he [Lorenzen] had never ever [come] in contact with anyone that looked like Sherra."

The couple married in 1998 and welcomed six more children together: daughter Loren, daughter Sierra, twins Lamar and Shamar, son Lawson, and daughter Sofia.

The marriage soured, and in February 2010, the couple divorced amid mutual accusations of infidelity. Lorenzen moved to Atlanta, but on July 19, 2010, he flew back to Memphis for his daughter Loren's dance recital.

No one ever saw Lorenzen alive again. He was found dead ten days later, and the police launched an investigation into the murder of the basketball player, but the case went unsolved.

Sherra cashed in on a million-dollar insurance policy that Lorenzen had made as a provision to the divorce, which was meant to benefit the children if he died.

Five years later, Sherra published a book, "Mr. Tell Me Anything," in which she told the story of a woman married to an abusive basketball star. Police would later find the murder weapon near Sherra's house and she became a suspect.

Lorenzen Wright Jr. Decided Not to Pursue a Basketball Career

In 2019, nine years after Lorenzen's death, Sherra was convicted of her ex-husband's murder along with the deacon of her church, Billy Ray Turner. The six Wright children were left alone, with Lorenzen Jr. and Loren left as the only adults.

Shamar and Lamar refuse to allow their loyalties to be divided --they love their mother and their father equally, whatever their faults.

Lorenzen Wright Jr. was born on April 11, 1995. He played college basketball at Robert Morris University and earned a degree in organizational leadership.

Despite his talent and love of the game, Lorenzen Jr. decided not to pursue basketball as a career. According to his sister Loren, he followed in his maternal grandfather's footsteps and became a coach.

Like his siblings, Lorenzen Jr. stood by his mother throughout the trial and the ordeal of the accusations. Sherra said:

"My children know who mom is, but they also know who dad was. To me that’s the most important thing."

Loren Wright Spoke in Support of Her Mother

Born on April 2, 1997, Loren is the oldest daughter and was a grown woman when her mother went to prison in 2019. It is she who has raised her little sister Sofia. Loren never wavered in her support of her mother and refused help from her father's family. She said:

"We all are so close to each other, we feel like we don’t really need much in terms of support, because we have my mom and the six of us, and we’re OK."

Loren also denied that her mother had ever discouraged them from speaking to her father's family, an accusation that Lorenzen's mother had leveled against Sherra.

Despite the upheaval in the family and taking on the responsibility for her younger siblings, Loren qualified as a nurse and worked at the California Highlands Addiction Treatment.

Twins Shamar and Lamar Wright Followed in Their Father's Footsteps

Although the exact date of their birth is unknown, the Wright twins, Shamar and Lamar, are believed to have been born in 2000. The two young men are identical twins and share a passion for basketball.

For the twins, basketball is a link to the father they lost so tragically. They both play at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the Cougars, the college's basketball team.

Shamar and Lamar refuse to allow their loyalties to be divided -- they love their mother and their father equally, whatever their faults. When the pressure gets too much, the twins have one solution: play basketball.

Sierra Wright Didn't Live to Be One Year Old

Lorenzen's death wasn't the first tragedy to afflict the Wright family. In 2003, baby Sierra Wright who was born on March 14, 2002, died at the age of eleven months.

Sherra found Sierra unresponsive in her crib and rushed her to the hospital, but doctors could not revive the baby. The little girl's death was attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and it left her parents and siblings devastated.

In her memory, the Sierra Simone Wright Scholarship Fund was established to grant scholarships to deserving students without the means to attend a college in Memphis.

To this day, her siblings hold little Sierra in their hearts, and Lorenzen Jr, who was seven when she passed away, has her image and the date of her death tattooed on his arm.

Lorenzen Wright's Youngest Children - Lawson and Sofia

Lawson and Sofia are the youngest of the Wright siblings. Of the two, Lawson is the oldest, but very little is known about him. The young man keeps a low profile, and his social media accounts are private.

Sofia is more active on social media. She has posted messages of gratitude to her sister Loren, who raised her in her mother's absence. The young girl was 12 at the time of Sherra's imprisonment and is believed to have been born in 2007.

The teenager lives in California with her sister Loren and seems to have inherited her dad's athletic ability and plays volleyball at her school.

Although they have struggled with their family tragedy, the Wrights' devotion and support of each other as a family has seen them through. The future looks bright for Lorenzen Wright's children.