The medical examiner has ruled Wright’s death a homicide.
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Police say Wednesday that 35-year-old Michael Wright was last seen November 5.
Content Preview This content is exclusive for Optimum, Time Warner, Comcast, customers with access to News 12. The basketball coach at the University of Arizona, where Wright played three years before being drafted by the NY Knicks, called the news “devastating” during a news conference. Family members said they weren’t ready to comment and one Closter neighbor said the news had “knocked the wind” out of him.
“He was found unconscious and unresponsive in the back of his vehicle, with a tarp covering his body and an unknown object covering his head”, the spokesman said. When she told me, I couldn’t believe it. “It makes no sense”, he said of Wright’s death. He went on to play for several teams in Europe until this year and held a dual citizenship in Turkey, CBS Chicago reported.
Named to Sporting News’ Freshman All-American team, the Chicago native played for Arizona from 1998-2001 and helped the Wildcats to the 2001 NCAA title game, where they fell to Duke.
“Michael was still a professional athlete”, Nelson said. “He told me he was still playing, and thinking what he was going to do”. In the national final, Wright had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
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An autopsy was scheduled to determine how he died, but a police source told the NY Daily News that Wright was bipolar and might have taken his own life.
