By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Forward Michael Wright died Tuesday night, according to what Farragut High School coach Wolf Nelson told. He also had a Turkish passport as Ali Karadeniz and played in Europe for almost his whole career.
Wright played at Arizona for three seasons, from 1998-99 to 2000-01. The Wildcats played in the 2001 NCAA Championship game, falling to Duke. He was drafted No. 39 overall by the New York Knicks in 2001 but wound up starting a long overseas career in Poland. He started with Polish league champions Slask Wrocław, moving to Spain’s CB Granada the following year.
After the team was relegated to the LEB (Spain’s second division), Wright moved to Israel and signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and a year later with ALBA Berlin. In 2005, He moved to Besiktas and in 2006 he signed with French and Euroleague’s EB Pau Orthez. In May of 2007, he moved back to Turkey and signed for Turk Telekom B.K.. In September 2009 he has signed a contract with Turow Zgorzelec from Poland for 2009-10 season. In July of 2011, he returned to Turk Telekom B.K. for one season. In the summer of 2012, he signed a contract with Mersin BB. On February 3, 2015, he signed with Cholet Basket of the French LNB Pro A where he played for five games.
Michael Wright was found dead at his 35 years of age in his SUV in Brooklyn, N. Y., the apparent victim of foul play.