Beale basketball star fulfills life-long dream

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class George Cloutier
  • 9th RW Public Affairs
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  He started right here, and now one of Beale's former star athletes is playing for one of the best basketball teams in the world.

Lawrence Wright Jr., son of Master Sgt. Lawrence Wright, 9th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels maintenance assistant section chief, is one of the newest members of the Harlem Globetrotters. T

These days, he travels the world wowing crowds with his amazing high-flying antics. Before he even put on a Globetrotters jersey however, he was playing right here, setting the stage for his professional athletic career through the base's youth sports programs with the help of his parents.

"My dad got me started in basketball," Wright said. "When I was 7 or 8 we would shoot around. I was always playing on youth leagues, playing on base and going to tournaments."

Wright's father is a youth basketball coach on base. His mother, Denise, is a track and field coach at Wheatland High School.

"When Beale youth track and field got started years ago, we got involved in it," Sergeant Wright said. "He wanted to go into track and field at the time."

By the time Wright got to high school, he was playing for both his track and field and basketball teams, and led the Wheatland High basketball team to three straight state conference championships.

While Wright was out on the court winning for his team, his father was out winning for his country.

"During most of that time I was deployed so I didn't get to see him play a lot," Sergeant Wright said. "It's a process of us spending four months in Det. 1, then coming home for four months and then going to Det. 4 for four months."

Without his father there, Wright's mother took over responsibility for him, his older brother and younger sister. Some of that responsibility also fell on Wright, especially when it came to his athletic career.

"Not having my dad there was tough," Wright said. "We had to be more strict and be able to do things on our own since we only had one parent around. It was a lot of responsibility."

Despite not being there in person, the lessons Wright's father passed on to his children continued to guide them even in his absence.

"I have two rules for my kids, one is do the best you can in whatever you get into and two is that you're not going to quit," Sergeant Wright said. "Give it all you can, and at the end of the day it's fine."

And give it all he did. Instead of wasting his summers, Wright used his time to get closer to his goal.

"In the summer time, instead of hanging out, I'd go to the gym in the morning and work out for three or four hours," Wright said. "It's hard at first, but after a while you get used to it. I was always in the gym, year-round."

These same principles and practices can be applied to anyone with similar goals, Lawrence said.

"Just work hard at whatever you're doing," he said.

With his own personal perseverance and the military values of dedication to the mission passed down to him by his father, Wright out performed the competition when he stepped onto the court.

"How that transfers to the court is that it helps me do what my coach says," Wright said. "That's what I have to do. It's helped me a lot on the court. Just listening, going out there and doing my job on the team."

Now on the Globetrotters, when Wright goes out on the court he does his job by showing up the competition, something that helped him get on the Globetrotters in the first place.

"He got into the 'trotters when he was in the National Standup Contest in 2006," Sergeant Wright said. "They noticed he was very athletic and they called him and asked him to come down to Phoenix for a tryout. He was selected on the spot."

After being selected as the newest Globetrotters member, Wright is now part of what is arguably the best basketball team in the world.

"One of the first (things) out of his mouth was 'I'll never lose again,'" Sergeant Wright said.