Cameron Garemani
The Cleveland Browns have traded talented but troubled wide receiver Josh Gordon to the New England Patriots. In return, the Browns will get a 2019 fifth-round pick, while the Pats will get a 2019 seventh-round pick from the Browns if Gordon is not active for 10 games, league sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. At least eight to 10 teams called the Browns inquiring about potentially trading for Gordon, according to ESPN's Josina Anderson reporting, after the Browns announced Saturday that they intended to release Gordon on Monday. The Patriots will pay Gordon the remaining $697,058 on his 2018 contract. Gordon will be a restricted free agent after the season, and New England can tender him. To make room for Gordon on the roster, the Patriots released wide receiver Corey Coleman. The Patriots have now made 28 transactions
Cameron Garemani
involving a wide receiver since the start of the new league year in March, tied with the Denver Broncos for the most in the NFL in that span. Cleveland's preference had been to trade Gordon to an NFC team, a source told Schefter on Sunday. "I think (general manager) John (Dorsey) got the best deal that he could get," Cleveland coach Hue Jackson said Monday in announcing the trade. "(Gordon's) gone now, and we're gonna move on and coach the team that's here and get our team ready to play Thursday night." The Browns on Saturday provided no details behind their decision to part ways with Gordon, but a source told ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Saturday that Gordon broke the team's "trust" when he reported to the facility Saturday with a hamstring issue after being a full participant in practice all week. The source said there were other "mitigating factors" inclusive of current and past incidents. "There were things that we do not want to have happen here," Jackson said. "And we made a decision that this is best for our football team moving forward." Despite his hamstring issue, Gordon is considered healthy enough to play Sunday for the Patriots against the Detroit Lions, a source told Schefter. "Huge s/o to the city of Cleveland," Gordon wrote in an Instagram story posted Saturday. "This place will always feel like home to me.. I'm extremely honored and blessed to have been able to grow up and start a life amongst such a passionate and motivated group of individuals.. It's been a hell of a journey with you guys. I wish all of you nothing but the best.. Thanks to the @ClevelandBrowns organization for having me, I'll never forget my time here. "Same book, next chapter.." He ended the post by writing, "P.S. Anybody need a deep threat WR??" Gordon's immense talent has been overshadowed by substance abuse that has derailed a promising career. He has been suspended by the NFL for most of the past four seasons because of multiple drug violations, and the Browns have been supportive of him for years as he has tried to turn things around.
Cameron Garemani
Gordon, 27, missed three weeks of training camp this summer to undergo counseling and treatment, and he recently said he was in a good place mentally and physically. "Fundamentally, we wouldn't want to bring a player onto our team that wouldn't be able to help our team," Patriots coach Bill Belichick told WEEI late Monday afternoon when asked about the team's history of taking chances on players. "Obviously, they don't all work out, but that's the intent." Though he didn't want to say much before Gordon arrived in the locker room, Patriots wide receiver Phillip Dorsett raved about Gordon's talent. "I think it's obviously known that he's a freakish athlete," Dorsett said. "We see what he does when he's on the field, so I guess I'll leave it at that for now." Patriots quarterback Tom Brady also weighed in on one of the game's most talented players in his weekly Westwood One interview on "Monday Night Football." "I hate to make projections and expectations," Brady said of Gordon's off-field issues. "That's not fair. I've never met Josh personally, just like I hadn't met some of the guys that have come in the last couple of weeks. We'll see how it goes this week. Hopefully, he can work hard and put the team first and end up helping us in any role that he can find for himself on the team." The Browns declared Gordon out for Week 2 because of a hamstring injury and left him in Cleveland before the team departed for New Orleans for Sunday's loss to the Saints. Gordon had not been on the injury report all week. A source told Schefter that Gordon hurt the hamstring at a promotional shoot, not at practice. The event was not sponsored by the team but was for a line of products, possibly clothing, that the wide receiver was endorsing, the source said. Week 1's tie against Pittsburgh, in which he caught a game-tying, 17yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, was Gordon's first appearance in a Week 1 game since his rookie season in 2012. Gordon has not played in a game that his team has won since Nov. 23, 2014, when the Browns beat the Falcons 26-24.
Cameron Garemani
Gordon emerged as one of pro football's most dynamic players in 2013, when he led the NFL with 1,646 receiving yards and scored nine touchdowns. Gordon missed the 2015 season because of a drug suspension and opted to spend 2016 in rehab. Veteran Patriots safety Duron Harmon recalled facing Gordon in the 2013 season, when Gordon had seven catches for 151 yards and one touchdown for the Browns in a 27-26 loss to New England. "He had a breakaway slant against Aqib Talib that showed the speed and athleticism, [and] a lot of good catches with Talib all on him," Harmon said. "We all know what type of player he is. Hopefully, he will come here and does a lot of those plays for us." Gordon sat out the first 11 games last year before returning for Cleveland's final five games. The Browns selected Gordon in the 2012 supplemental draft despite his background of drug use at Baylor.
There were a lot of crazy moments in the NFL on Sunday, but none of them topped what happened in Buffalo. At halftime of the Bills' 31-20 loss to the Chargers, Vontae Davis decided he didn't want to play football anymore, so he quit the team and retired mid-game. As you can imagine, Davis' decision didn't really sit well with anyone in the organization. One teammate called him a quitter, another teammate said it was "disrespectful." But Davis doesn't really care what they think. After releasing a statement about his decision on Sunday, the defensive back decided to go into more detail this week during a conversation with ESPN's The Undefeated. During the interview, Davis said he was able to pinpoint the time he made the decision: It came with 47 seconds left in the first half, just after the Bills had cut the lead to 28-6. "I went to the bench after that series and it just hit me," Davis said.
Josh Taylor Media 1
Tekedrian Veal
He was a first-round draft pick in the NBA. 14 years later, he was found dead. Who killed Lorenzen Wright? He was a first-round draft pick in the NBA. 14 years later, he was found dead. Who killed Lorenzen Wright? The Clippers drafted Lorenzen Wright with the seventh overall pick in 1996. He played 13 seasons in the NBA. (Vince Compagnone / Los Angeles Times) Sherra Wright guided the silver Cadillac SUV through the darkness on a mild night, seven years after search and rescue dogs found her ex-husband’s body in a Memphis field.
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The remains of Lorenzen Wright weighed 57 pounds. The coroner needed dental records to identify the man the Clippers had picked in the first round of the 1996 NBA draft. Five gunshot wounds were visible in the withered corpse. Two in the head. Two in the torso. One in the right forearm. The killing remained unsolved, but by last December a long-dormant police investigation had taken on new life. And a task force of federal marshals and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies was tracking the Cadillac on Interstate 15 near Norco. As Sherra drove south with her twin 17-year-old boys, Lamar and Shamar, she relived the Murrieta Mesa High basketball team’s five-point win earlier that night. The twins combined to score 32 points. Sherra told her oldest son, Lorenzen Jr., all about the game on the phone. Then red and blue lights flashed behind them. The SUV pulled over and a voice amplified by a loudspeaker ordered Sherra to exit the car with her hands up. She started shaking. More cruisers zoomed up. Guns were drawn, Lamar said. The twins begged their mother to keep her hands up. They met about 25 years earlier, the teenage basketball prodigy from small-town Mississippi still growing into his 6-foot-11 body, and the headstrong daughter of his club coach. Lorenzen was 16, Sherra five years older. She paid for his hot wings and iced tea on dates, as well as for better clothes, new shoes, even a custom-made suit. “It was love and hate at the very first sight,” she wrote in “Mr. Tell Me Anything,” a 2015 book featuring two characters she later said were based on her and Lorenzen. “He hated that she was all he had been warned she would be. She hated that her interest was officially sparked by a minor.”
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This story is based on interviews with three of the couple’s six children — the first time they’ve spoken publicly — and others close to the family in addition to court documents, books, public records and media accounts. “Ours is a Love Story, not this horror film that has been erected by the Media,” Sherra wrote in a brief letter to the Los Angeles Times. Lorenzen Wright joins Clippers Lorenzen Wright, left, kneels by his father, Herb Wright, after a press conference at Sports Arena after the Clippers drafted him. (Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times) Lorenzen Wright and Ian Rice Lorenzen Wright with Ian Rice. (Ian Rice) Ian Rice with Lorenzen Wright's custom Chevrolet Tahoe Ian Rice with Lorenzen Wright's custom Chevrolet Tahoe. (Ian Rice) Nicknamed “The Howl” because he screamed after dunking the ball or blocking a shot, Lorenzen earned $55 million during 13 seasons with the Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers and Sacramento Kings. Friends thought the couple put on a good show off the basketball court: the stay-at-home mother and doting father enjoying mansions, luxury automobiles, designer clothes and a family that always appeared to be smiling. After the Clippers drafted Lorenzen from the University of Memphis with the seventh overall pick in June 1996, Ian Rice became close friends with the young family adjusting to Los Angeles. Then a teenage ballboy for the Clippers, Rice helped Lorenzen and Sherra move into a custom home in Playa del Rey and cared for their Rottweilers. Lorenzen lent the kid his Chevrolet Tahoe with televisions and a video-game system in the back for prom, then bought him a tuxedo and Nikes to match the cherry red SUV. When Rice graduated from high school, Lorenzen and Sherra attended the ceremony and rented him a limousine with a “Class of 1999” banner.
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“He was in love with her,” Rice said. “She had a grip on him.” But privately there was trouble, which occasionally spilled into public view. In August 2005, police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the Wright’s Memphis home. Sherra, according to news reports at the time, had a cut hand and abrasions on her jaw. There were no arrests or charges. Another time, Lorenzen and childhood friend Mike Gipson retreated to the family’s RV with a couple of strippers. Sherra discovered them, Gipson said, and Lorenzen jumped out a window. Sherra forced her way into the RV, chased the strippers out, ripped off Gipson’s shirt and tore up the vehicle’s interior. A handful of violent incidents between the two main characters in “Mr. Tell Me Anything” are folded in with allegations of infidelity and explicit descriptions of sexual encounters. Sherra told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in July 2015 that “99.99 percent” of the book contained true stories from her relationship with Lorenzen. She described it on social media as “my story.” Lorenzen Jr. said his mother “wrote about things that really happened in her life.” The book described the wife catching her husband with another woman. The wife kicked down the bathroom door, dragged the interloper out by her hair and repeatedly punched her. Then the wife turned to her husband and “slapped the hell out of his ass.” Lorenzen and Sherra separated in early 2009, around the same time his NBA career ended. Banks foreclosed on two of their homes, including a 17-room mansion in Eads, Tenn. They had $3 million in joint debt. A permanent parenting plan filed in Shelby County, Tenn., Circuit Court before the divorce was finalized in February 2010 required Lorenzen to pay $26,650 a month in alimony and child support based on his previous income as a professional basketball player. It cited the couple’s “extremely lavish lifestyle” and the need to continue to provide the children with benefits like a nanny and private basketball training.
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Lorenzen also had to maintain a $1 million life insurance policy, with Sherra as trustee. E. LIFE INSURANCE If agreed upon by the parties, the father shall insure his own life in the minimum amount of $ ONE MILLION DOLLARS by whole life or term insurance. Until the child support obligation has been completed, each policy shall name the child/children as sole irrevocable primary beneficiary, with the other parent, as trustee for the benefit of the child(ren), to serve without bond or accounting. A few months after their divorce, the relationship seemed to have thawed. Loren, the couple’s oldest daughter, said her father wanted to remarry Sherra. “He would tell us every day he was working to win her back,” the 21-year-old said. Investigators later found a series of sexually explicit text messages Sherra sent Lorenzen on July 17, 2010 — designed, they said in court records, to lure him to Memphis. Lorenzen flew from his home in suburban Atlanta the next day without even packing a change of clothes. Phil Dotson, a close friend, later told reporters he dropped off Lorenzen and Lorenzen Jr. at Sherra’s rented home on Whisperwoods Drive in the Memphis suburb of Collierville around 10 p.m. Nothing seemed amiss. Lorenzen planned to drive back to Atlanta with a friend, Jeremy Orange, and the children on July 19. The trip would include a stop at Six Flags White Water, Orange said. When he arrived at Sherra’s home that morning, she said Lorenzen wasn’t there. Orange repeatedly called his friend. There was no answer. When Gipson called Sherra, she suggested Lorenzen had run off with a lady friend. She texted Orange that Lorenzen was “probably in one of his little holes” and ended the message “LOL.”
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Lorenzen’s mother, Deborah Marion, filed a missing persons report July 22. When officers contacted Sherra, she told them her ex-husband left the home around 2 a.m. on July 19 with an unknown person in an unknown vehicle. Police sifted through a slew of theories on Lorenzen’s whereabouts. Sherra suggested Las Vegas. His father, Herb Wright, thought Lorenzen was in Europe “getting his mind right.” Others guessed Lorenzen had flown to Israel for a basketball tryout. A week after her ex-husband vanished, Sherra fought tears as she spoke with reporters at her front door: “I’m not going to believe anything other than he’s fine now.” The next day, she told detectives that Lorenzen had been involved in “major criminal activity,” after previously telling them he didn’t have any “problems, concerns or enemies.” She said he left her home late on July 18 with a box of drugs and cash. Several weeks earlier, Sherra added, men in a car with Florida license plates had come to the house looking for Lorenzen. In a separate conversation with detectives that day, Marion said her former daughter-in-law was “acting odd.” On July 28, Sherra told detectives Lorenzen made a phone call before leaving her home around 11:30 p.m., saying he was going to “flip something for $110,000.” Lorenzen Wright during his rookie year with the Clippers. Vince Compagnone / Los Angeles Times By then, police had linked Lorenzen to a brief 911 call made at 12:05 a.m. on July 19. The call had been lost for nine days in the confusion of overlapping jurisdictions. Police tracked it to an overgrown field surrounded by woods in Memphis — a spot Lorenzen, Sherra and friends visited over the years to drink, talk out quarrels, relax. Authorities discovered his body there, along with his necklace, watch and shell casings from two guns scattered on the ground.
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In the call, Lorenzen sounded overwhelmed by confusion and terror. [Bang! Bang!] Lorenzen: “Hey, goddamn!” Operator: “Germantown 911. Where's your emergency?” [Bang!] Operator: “Hello?” [Bang! Bang!] Operator: “Hello?” [Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!] Operator: “Hello? ... I don't have nothing but gunshots." Lorenzen’s body and nearby evidence spent 10 days exposed to 90-degree temperatures and a half-inch of rain. The remains were essentially a skeleton. Lorenzen Wright The body of Lorenzen Wright was found in this location in an overgrown field surrounded by woods in Memphis. Alan Spearman / Commercial Appeal “It was pretty much a cold case by the time investigators got it,” said Toney Armstrong, a Memphis Police veteran. Four days after the discovery of Lorenzen’s body, police searched Sherra’s home. Neighbors told them about an unusual bonfire in her backyard a night or two after Lorenzen disappeared. She retained a criminal defense attorney.
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Thousands attended Lorenzen’s memorial service at FedEx Forum in downtown Memphis. The silver casket rested in front of the stage among a sea of photos and flowers. Coaches, pastors, relatives, politicians and former NBA players testified to the special bond between Lorenzen and Memphis during his 34 years: “He had unlimited potential.” “This boy, young man, was an icon to the city.” “There’s gonna be rumors. There’s gonna be hearsay. But God knows the truth. And they will have to stand before the Lord.” The $1 million in life insurance money arrived 14 months after Lorenzen’s death. One of the first expenses, according to court records, was $1,445 for Lorenzen’s headstone engraved with a cross and basketball. After that, Sherra bought almost $70,000 of furniture and a Cadillac, Mercedes and Lexus. She acquired a 5,300-square-foot house in foreclosure. She put $7,100 down on a swimming pool and spent $11,750 for a family trip to New York. Sherra made cash withdrawals or wrote checks to herself for more than $344,000. She spent most of the life insurance money in the first 10 months, the records show. “All that money she so-called blew, it wasn’t spent on anybody else, it was spent on us,” Lorenzen Jr., now 23, said in a recent interview. “She don’t care about anything else but her kids.” A court filing in 2014 excoriated Sherra for a “lack of prudent financial judgment.” Just $5.05 remained in the trust’s bank account. DOCUMENT: Court document in 2014 excoriates Sherra Wright for a 'lack of prudent financial judgment' »
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Meanwhile, the investigation into Lorenzen’s death stalled. Memphis CrimeStoppers received only a handful of tips. The reward money remained modest, starting at $6,000 before reaching a high of $21,000. Armstrong, the Memphis Police director from 2011 to 2016, said he received phone calls suggesting police look into Sherra. A grand jury questioned her, but no charges were filed. “The entire city wanted that homicide solved,” Armstrong said. Sherra helped start a charity for inner-city children called Born 2 Prosper; the IRS revoked the organization’s nonprofit status in 2013 for not filing returns. She became a minister at Mt. Olive No. 1 Missionary Baptist Church in Collierville and rehearsed sermons in front of her children. She married Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputy Reginald Robinson in March 2014. “Over the past few years I have been called all sorts of things including crackhead, gold digger, stripper, murderer, whore and all other various terms,” Sherra wrote on Facebook in January 2015. “I gave it ALL to God and HE worked it out and works it out!” Sherra Wright Sherra Wright at a memorial service for Lorenzen Wright in Memphis, Tenn., on Aug. 4, 2010. Lance Murphey / Associated Press A reporter named Kelvin Cowans met Sherra in a Memphis-area Starbucks early in 2015. He planned to write a story for a weekly newspaper marking the fifth anniversary of Lorenzen’s death. During the interview, Sherra denied having anything to do with the killing and assailed her treatment by local media and relatives who suspected her involvement. “That bothered me — that the first time they would try to find out who I was would be when they are trying to tie me to a murder of somebody I’ve spent half my life with; somebody that I loved more than myself,” Sherra told Cowans in an interview he
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recorded. “That was so hurtful.” The six-hour discussion ended only because the coffee shop closed, he told The Times. They started dating within a week or two. Sherra divorced Robinson a few months later and eventually moved with Cowans to a white brick home in Sugar Land, Texas, with five of her six children. Lorenzen Jr. had left for college. Sherra cheered her children during high school basketball and volleyball games. The couple watched “Game of Thrones” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” And Cowans said Sherra kept spending: a gray Jaguar, a BMW, $15,000 for Christmas. Even after the insurance money ran out, she had property and other assets left over from the marriage to Lorenzen. Not everything was normal. Cowans recalled that Sherra sometimes paced the street in her bathrobe while shouting into her phone. He couldn’t figure out what precipitated such intense conversations and tried to block them out. A few nights each week, Sherra retreated to the couple’s walk-in closet to pray, usually with a pillow and blanket. Most of the closet belonged to her: mink coats, Rolex watches, about 300 pairs of shoes, more than 200 purses and an abundance of designer clothing. Cowans sometimes heard crying and incomprehensible speech coming from the closet. On one occasion, Cowans said, Sherra walked into their bedroom in the middle of the day, played Lorenzen’s 911 call and asked if he thought an indistinct voice on the recording sounded like a man or woman. “She’d have this scared look on her face,” said Cowans, who later split with Sherra and wrote about their relationship in the book “The Whispering Woods of Sherra Wright.” Repeated court fights with Herb Wright, the executor of Lorenzen’s estate, kindled Sherra’s anger. In one clash, she alleged Lorenzen didn’t make alimony and child
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support payments before his death and petitioned Shelby County Circuit Court in February 2016 to take the money from the estate. “Lorenzen’s family questioning her about anything would always set her off. … It was real bad. It was just ugly,” Cowans said. “Looking back, now I believe Sherra felt like Lorenzen wronged her so it really didn’t matter how she treated him or his family.” Sherra bolted awake one night breathing heavily. She usually didn’t talk to Cowans about the constant nightmares. This time, though, she said Lorenzen had called her down a street in their old neighborhood. “You know I love you,” Lorenzen said. “Get over here.” He reached out, she said, and crumbled into dust. Sherra Wright (R) prays with her family before a 2016 Christmas celebration in Sugar Land, Texas. Sh Sherra Wright, right, prays with her family before a 2016 Christmas celebration in Sugar Land, Texas. Kelvin Cowans Sherra and Cowans broke up in February 2017. She and the children moved to Riverside County, where her brother, Marcus Robinson, worked as a pastor. Tim Robertson, an old friend, became her third husband. They settled in Murrieta. Loren learned about the marriage when Sherra mentioned it during a casual phone conversation. Sherra ferried the younger children to practices and games, hosted their friends, retweeted basketball highlights from the twins and finished writing the sequel to “Mr. Tell Me Anything.” When she floated the idea of pursuing a job providing in-home medical care, the
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children recoiled. She had been a stay-at-home mother their entire lives. They didn’t want that to change. “I know how much she has sacrificed over her whole life just trying to protect us and make sure we’re OK,” Lorenzen Jr. said. Unknown to the family, the hunt for Lorenzen’s killers had taken on new life. The Shelby County Multi-Agency Gang Unit received an unspecified tip in spring 2016 that led it to reexamine the case. Officers dubbed the effort Operation Rebound because it was a second chance to bring closure to Lorenzen’s family. They investigated the murder as if it had just occurred, even retracing his final steps in the field. Each tip and piece of evidence pointed to a murky lake next to a landfill in Walnut, Miss. It had been searched without success earlier in the investigation after a tip from one of Sherra’s cousins, Jimmie Martin. Investigators tried again. On June 27, 2017, an FBI dive team found a semiautomatic 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson pistol in the lake. Ballistics testing matched the shell casings near Lorenzen’s body. About four months later, investigators secured a court order to monitor Sherra’s phone calls. They announced the pistol had been found, then intercepted a call by Sherra that seemed to imply an informant led authorities to the weapon. “Someone done sent somebody somewhere to get something,” she said in the call. Cowans texted. He thought Sherra would be relieved the pistol had been found. Instead, she sounded worried, even agitated. He didn’t know what to make of the response. Four days after the intercepted call, investigators said, Sherra flew to Memphis and met with Billy Ray Turner — a convicted felon who served as a deacon at the Collierville church she once attended. A relative of Sherra told investigators the ex-wife and Turner were in a romantic relationship at the time of Lorenzen’s murder. Loren disagreed.
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“He was not my mom’s secret lover,” she said. Turner had also been named in Lorenzen’s death in 2010 by two tipsters to Memphis CrimeStoppers. It is not clear why those tips didn’t advance the case. (Speaking generally at a news conference about the case last December, Memphis Police director Michael Rallings said tips don’t always give authorities sufficient evidence to make an arrest.) In another intercepted phone call, investigators overheard Sherra tell an unknown person that when police searched the home on Whisperwoods Drive in August 2010, they missed three guns. Police arrested Turner in Collierville on Dec. 5. A week and a half passed before the task force pulled over Sherra’s Cadillac SUV on Interstate 15 in Norco. The twins started crying, Lamar recalled. They had no idea what was happening. Officers removed the children from the Cadillac one at a time. They seated Lamar in the back of a cruiser. An officer told the boy they were arresting his mother for killing his father. The prosecution’s case centers on Martin, an aspiring Memphis rapper who used the stage name Triksta. He is also Sherra’s cousin. Sherra Wright Mug shot of Sherra Wright taken after her arrest on Dec. 15, 2017. Riverside County Sheriff In addition to providing the tip about the pistol in the lake, Martin alleged that Sherra paid him and Turner in a failed attempt to kill Lorenzen to collect the life-insurance money. According to the complaint, the men tried to kill Lorenzen at the suburban Atlanta townhouse in early 2010. They entered through a window Sherra left unlocked,
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but Lorenzen wasn’t there. After Lorenzen's death in July 2010, Martin told authorities, Sherra and Turner had “confessed to him that they had murdered Lorenzen Wright.” Martin is serving a 20-year prison sentence for second-degree murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend. He didn’t respond to an interview request through his attorney. Sherra and Turner have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges. Five years passed between Martin’s tip about the gun and their arrests. Most of the case file is sealed, the people involved remain tight-lipped and prosecutors haven’t offered an explanation for the delay. An orange jailhouse shirt had replaced Sherra’s designer clothes in late January when she arrived in Memphis after a cross-country trip in a prison transport bus. During a hearing May 30, Shelby County Judge Lee Coffee read a series of reports about Sherra’s behavior in jail. The previous day, the judge said, she directed “abusive, profane language” toward guards. Coffee described the words as “so foul, so offensive, so incendiary that I will not even publish these statements in this courtroom.” Six minutes after the outburst, she allegedly stripped naked and attempted to stuff items into a toilet to flood the cell. The judge said she told guards she was “going swimming, y’all.” One of Sherra’s former attorneys, Blake Ballin, suggested at the time the incident raised concern about her mental health. The judge increased Sherra’s bail to $20 million. Sherra Wright, left, the ex-wife of slain former NBA player Lorenzen Wright, glances at her new cour Sherra Wright, left, glances at attorney Juni Ganguli, right, after her lawyers Steve Farese and Blake Ballin asked to be withdrawn from representing her in Shelby County Criminal
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Court in Memphis on July 11, 2018. Mark Weber / Associated Press “It’s all like a terrible dream, all of it,” Sherra, now 47, wrote in the letter to The Times delivered by Loren. “From his murder to my arrest, unreal. But, I have grown as a woman of God that is putting my hope in the Lord. I believe, with the help of the nation, I will make bond. … I can’t wait until the day that I sit down for a ‘real’ documentary or movie with the TRUTH in it.” The letter ended with a plea for supporters to write her in jail, raise bail money and buy the sequel to “Mr. Tell Me Anything.” “Stay tuned for my upcoming book during the Christmas holiday,” Sherra wrote. “Be blessed.” On Aug. 22, Coffee ordered Sherra to undergo a mental evaluation. No trial date has been set. Her new attorney, Juni Ganguli, said his client “misses her children terribly” and maintains her innocence. The six children — who range in age from 11 to 23 — are adamant their mother was not involved in their father’s death. “Not my mom, not Sherra,” Loren said. The children created a GoFundMe in late June to help bail out their mother. The “Bring Mommy Wright Home” campaign, seeking $500,000, accused prosecutors of “having no case other than lies and fabrications.” More than two months later, it hadn’t raised a dollar.
Trinity Montoya-Jackson
Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who inspired a player protest movement but who has been out of a job for more than a year, has signed a new, multiyear deal with Nike that makes him a face of the 30th anniversary of the sports apparel company’s “Just Do It” campaign, Nike confirmed on Monday. The first advertisement from Nike, one of the league’s top partners, debuted Monday afternoon, when Kaepernick tweeted it, assuring that his activism and the protest movement against racism and social injustice he started would continue to loom over one of the country’s most powerful sports leagues. [Related: How Colin Kaepernick controls the N.F.L. protest conversation without saying anything] Nike will produce new Kaepernick apparel, including a shoe and a T-shirt, and if the merchandise sells well, the value of the deal will rival those of other top N.F.L. players, according to people close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nike had not formally announced it. Nike will also donate money to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign. The N.F.L. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ad and the campaign, coming a few days before the start of the N.F.L. season on Thursday, is likely to annoy the league’s top executives and its owners. On Thursday, Kaepernick won a victory in his grievance against the league when an arbitrator let his case, in which he accuses the league of conspiring to keep him off the field because of his activism, advance.
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A wave of on-field protests has continued, with varying degrees of intensity, since summer 2016, when Kaepernick began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem. Now, with just one tweet, the former N.F.L. quarterback and Nike have set the world alight, causing a flurry of stories in major publications, inspiring a top trending hashtag across social media and possibly even contributing to a broader decline in the stock market. Reaction to Kaepernick’s tweet was swift. Almost immediately, “Just Do It” and “Nike” became top trending terms on Twitter in the United States, and by morning the hashtag #NikeBoycott was one of the most used on the social media service. People posted videos and photographs of themselves destroying their Nike apparel in response to the company’s decision to work with Kaepernick. Kaepernick has been a Nike endorser since he entered the N.F.L. in 2011. Nike’s stock price fell more than two percent in early trading Tuesday. It was the worst performing stock in the Dow Jones industrial average, helping to drag the average to a fall for the first part of the day. While some investors are likely nervous that the company’s decision to prominently feature Kaepernick could inspire a boycott, the stock price of main competitor Adidas was also down more than two percent. The broader stock market downturn was being blamed on worries about tense negotiations over Nafta. The N.F.L. has struggled to contain the on-field protests, which have also included raised fists and other gestures, which league officials have blamed for dragging down the league. Television ratings have declined and certain segments of the fan base have reacted angrily. President Trump has made the N.F.L. a target for not firing players who refuse to stand for the national anthem. The protest movement Kaepernick started has been interpreted by some as being disrespectful to the American flag and the military. Political conservatives have widely condemned it. Many of those posting on social media Monday and Tuesday about boycotting Nike or throwing out their Nike gear referenced their connection to and support for the military, even though the players who, like Kaepernick, have protested have made it clear they are not anti-military and some veterans have expressed support for their actions. The Kaepernick deal could be awkward for the league.
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In March, Nike and the N.F.L. announced an extension of an apparel deal through 2028. As part of that deal, Nike supplies 32 teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel that features the company’s swoosh logo. When that deal was announced, Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, called the company “a longtime and trusted partner” of the league. Kaepernick and Nike already had an endorsement deal, dating to when he entered the league in 2011, but it was expiring soon and has now been extended. The new Kaepernick ad features a close-up, black-and-white photograph of his face, with copy that references his kneeling and his belief that his activism is keeping him out of the league. The ad reads: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” When asked if Nike had run the campaign by the N.F.L., a spokeswoman, Sandra Carreon-John, responded: “Nike has a longstanding relationship with the N.F.L. and works extensively with the league on all campaigns that use current N.F.L. players and its marks. Colin is not currently employed by an N.F.L. team and has no contractual obligation to the N.F.L.” The new contract was negotiated by Kaepernick’s lawyers, Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas, and Nike executives. Even as the N.F.L. season approaches, the Kaepernick story has continued to dominate the N.F.L. narrative. On Friday, Kaepernick received an ovation from the crowd at the United States Open match between Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Serena Williams, LeBron James, Odell Beckham Jr., Shaquem Griffin and Lacey Baker are also part of the “Just Do It” anniversary campaign. Nike’s decision to make new Kaepernick merchandise and to make him the face of a campaign could, if they are successful for the company, undercut the argument from N.F.L. owners that he is bad for business. Previously, Nike stated that it “supports athletes and their right to freedom of expression on issues that are of great importance to our society,” but the company had not used Kaepernick in any recent ad campaigns. There is reason to believe that Kaepernick, despite not playing, will move merchandise. During the second quarter of 2017, his officially licensed jersey was the 39th-best selling in the league. As an unsigned free agent, he was the only player in the top 50 of those rankings not signed to a team. With Kaepernick seemingly having little chance of playing in the N.F.L. again, Geragos
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was eager to try to portray him as something more than a football player. “I give Nike credit for understanding that he’s not just an athlete, he has become an icon,” Geragos said.
LOS ANGELES -- LeBron James' next NBA chapter will be set on the West Coast. James will be playing for the Los Angeles Lakerson a four-year, $153.3 million contract. He will try to bring the storied franchise another championship. EDITOR'S PICKSEverything to know about LeBron James joining the Lakers For the third time in his career, LeBron James is changing teams. Here's everything you need to know about his decision to join the Lakers. Lakers ticket prices soar on StubHub due to LBJ Lakers ticket prices on the secondary market soared in the wake of LeBron James' joining the franchise, with one person paying $188,781 on StubHub for four season tickets in the lower bowl. LeBron boosts Vegas odds of Lakers winning title The Lakers, with the addition of LeBron James, are suddenly top-tier contenders to win next season's NBA championship, according to Las Vegas sportsbooks. The announcement was made through his agency, Klutch Sports Group, which announced the deal as $154 million. ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that the fourth year is a player option. It is the longest deal James has signed since inking a six-year contract with the Miami Heat in 2010. His previous three deals were three years or shorter. James leaves his hometown team as a free agent for the second time in his career. Four years ago, James had stated his intention to finish his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Whether the four-time MVP and 14-time All-Star does that or not, he certainly has left his mark on his city. James, 33, thanked his home area in an Instagram story. He wrote in text overlaying a photo from the Cavaliers' 2016 NBA title victory parade, "Thank you Northeast Ohio for an incredible 4 seasons. This will always be home." He delivered the first championship to the sports-obsessed city in 52 years and did so with storybook gusto, helping the Cavaliers become the first team in NBA Finals history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit to win it all. The team he took down, the Golden State Warriors, had the best regular-season record in league history, at 73-9. "Words do not express the meaning and the feeling this accomplishment brought to the people
of Northeast Ohio," Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert said in a lengthy statement thanking James. "None of this would have happened if LeBron James did not agree to come back home and lead the Cavaliers to the promised land. NBA free agency and trades! Here's the latest on another thrilling summer in the NBA: "LeBron is a family man, first. We wish his kids, his wife, Savannah, his mother, Gloria, and LeBron himself nothing but the best in the years and decades ahead. LeBron's connection to Akron, Cleveland and all of Northeast Ohio will most certainly endure as his commitment to the region and his support of many important causes has been impactful to so many kids and families. "LeBron, you came home and delivered the ultimate goal. Nothing but appreciation and gratitude for everything you put into every moment you spent in a Cavaliers uniform. We look forward to the retirement of the famous #23 Cavs jersey one day down the line ..." James leaves the Cavaliers franchise as its leader in nearly every major statistical category: games played, points, rebounds, assists and steals. If 2017-18 was his final act in Cleveland, what a show he put on -- playing in all 82 games for the first time in his 15-year career and capping it off with a postseason performance as dominant as any playoff run James has ever been part of. play Windhorst says L.A. was the desired location for LeBron Brian Windhorst details how LeBron James came to his decision to leave the Cavaliers for the Lakers. James becomes the first player in NBA history to lead a postseason in scoring and switch teams the following offseason. He joins the illustrious list of NBA legends to play for the Lakers, some of whom have already welcomed James to the family. NBA players past and present reacted on Twitter too. James' agent, Rich Paul, called Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson minutes before he sent the announcement tweet, a source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. Paul then called Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman as soon as he got off the phone with
Johnson. Then the tweet was sent. The Lakers, after failing to get a meeting with free-agent target Paul George prior to George's announcement that he would re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder, have secured free agency's most coveted player. In the franchise's biggest free-agent splash since Shaquille O'Neal became a Laker in the summer of 1996, Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka have delivered a major piece of the plan they plotted when they joined the Lakers in February 2017. Johnson took the job largely to restore the franchise's glorious past and recruit elite superstars to Los Angeles -something the franchise had struggled with in recent years. James joins the league's second-youngest team when weighted by playing time from last season. The Lakers have an up-and-coming young core of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart. Which of the Lakers' young prospects will stay to play alongside James remains to be seen. The Lakers have been trying to acquire Kawhi Leonard, who reportedly is unhappy with the San Antonio Spurs and would prefer to play for the Lakers. The Spurs would surely want as many prospects and assets as possible from the Lakers in exchange for the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. A source told Shelburne that the Lakers felt a sense of urgency this week to find a co-star to play alongside James, either through free agency with George or through a trade for Leonard. Johnson went to one of James' houses in Los Angeles late Saturday night and met with him for several hours, sources told Shelburne. However, when Johnson spoke to James and James' camp at the opening of free agency, James assured the Lakers that this was a long-term play for him and his decision wouldn't be affected by a single transaction the Lakers could make under time pressure. James made it clear that this latest NBA-altering decision would be made with his family in mind. James has two homes in Los Angeles, where his off-the-court business interests can thrive. Johnson and Pelinka will continue to work to surround James with more talent in order to challenge the Warriors and Houston Rockets in the Western Conference. But Johnson has landed the biggest fish he was trying to catch. Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss said she had ultimate faith in Johnson and Pelinka, but she also said last week that she wants to see the Lakers, who went 35-47 last season, return to the postseason for the first time since 2012-13. Johnson said last week that if he failed to add stars to the Lakers by next summer, he would
step down from his job. That is moot with the team landing James. play 3:23 LeBron chooses Lakers for next chapter Mark Schwarz breaks down LeBron James' path billto the Lakers, with whom he will continue to chase Michael Jordan's GOAT title and the dynasty of the Dubs. "No pressure on me," Johnson said last week when asked if he felt urgency to add a star in this free agency. "I am going to do my job. I have always done that. ... Do you know how many Finals I have been in [as a player]? So you think I am worried about this? I have played against Larry Bird in the Finals. I mean, come on, man. I have been in nine Finals. I have been in college NCAA championships." When told that this is a different job than being the point guard who orchestrated the Lakers' "Showtime" dynasty, Johnson reminded people of who he is. "I'm Magic Johnson. I am still the same dude," he said. "I am not going to change. No pressure on me. I am going to do my job. That's what I do. I do my job. I'm excited. It's fun. I am looking forward to it." And enjoying it. ESPN's Dave McMenamin contributed to this report.