The Wright stuff: Success has been a constant theme for Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana -- Larry Wright’s epic basketball journeys always seemed to reach the same destination.

No matter where he played, from Richwood High School to Grambling State University and into professional ball, Wright was always part of teams that won big.

“Winning has always been number one for me since I can remember starting to play at an early age,” Wright said. “Even as a small kid going to the rec center, winning was always the number one deal with me.”

Wright was a two-time Parade Magazine All-American at Richwood and won a Class 3A state championship in 1972. He transferred to Western High School in Washington D.C. as a senior and his team won the city championship. Grambling won the 1976 SWAC tournament championship with Wright starring as the conference player of the year.

Drafted in the first round by the Washington Bullets in 1976, Wright joined the franchise that won the NBA championship in 1978.

Wright finished his playing days as an international star, delivering a European Championship for Italy’s Banco DiRoma in 1983-84.

For all of his accomplishments, Wright has finally earned induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2018. He and 10 others will be enshrined at the annual induction dinner and ceremony at the Natchitoches Events Center on Saturday, June 30.

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SHREVEPORT, Louisiana -- Wright, who teamed with 1988 LSHOF inductee Elvin Hayes on the Washington Bullets’ 1978 NBA Champion squad, was a prep and college standout in Louisiana who played six NBA seasons, and later served as the head coach at Grambling State, his alma mater. A sharp-shooting 6-1 guard, he was a prep All-American at two schools, Richwood of Monroe and Western High School in the Washington, D.C. metro area, then was a two-time NCAA Small College All-American (1975-76) at Grambling.

After being the SWAC Player of the Year as a junior with a 25.4 scoring average for the Tigers’ only SWAC Tournament championship team, he declared for the NBA Draft and was a first-round NBA Draft pick of Washington. In four seasons with the Bullets, he scored 2,489 regular-season points in 297 games (8.4 points a game), averaging between 9.3 and 7.3 points a game each season.

After playing a season for Detroit (7.4 ppg), Wright went on to play in Europe, leading Banco DiRoma to the Italian championship in 1982-83, winning Italian Player of the Year honors in 1983. One publication named him the European Player of the Year in 1983-84 when he led the team to the European title. In 1972, he led Richwood to the state Class 3A championship, averaging 28.9 ppg. A year later at Western HS, he led the team to the Inner City championship and the Knights of Columbus championship, earning a spot on the Parade Magazine Super 13 All-American team in 1973.

LOUISIANA SPORTS HALL OF FAME MEDIA COMMUNICATION