A sad, tragic end in Memphis

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07/29/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A body riddled with bullets was found in Southeast Memphis Wednesday afternoon in a thickly wooded area near FedEx's world headquarters.

It was just another sad ending in a city that has become notorious for its gang problems and ever-increasing homicide rate.

But, Lorenzen Wright was the last person they should have been caught up in the underbelly of Memphis.

Wright spent 13 years in the NBA after being selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1996 draft.

Raised near Oxford, Miss., the River City would become a constant in Wright's short life. The 6-foot-11 power forward played his high school and college ball in Memphis, and eventually ended up with the Grizzlies in 2001-02 when he was traded by the Atlanta Hawks along with Pau Gasol and Brevin Knight to the Grizz for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jamaal Tinsley.

Although he never lived up to the billing of a top 10 pick, Wright carved out a niche that enabled him to make over $55 million dollars over his NBA career, and he never hesitated to give back to his hometown.

During his first of three NBA stints in Atlanta, Wright, Penny Hardaway and two other Memphis-area NBA players (Todd Day and Elliot Perry) furnished $10,000 to Travis Butler, a 9-year-old boy who lived with his mother's corpse for a month out of fear he would be put in foster care if anyone found out she was dead.

He also founded the Sierra Simone Wright Scholarship Fund designed to award students for academic achievement and heavy involvement in their school or community after the death of his infant daughter in March 2003.

Now, all that's left of Wright's legacy is for police to figure out what happened to him in the early morning hours of July 19.

The 34-year-old Wright was last seen alive on July 18 and was reported missing by his family four days later. A 911 call was received from Wright's cell phone at 1:00 am on the 19th and the caller, presumably Wright, was speaking with the dispatcher when several gun shots rang out.

According to 730 Fox Sports in Memphis, Wright was shot at least a dozen times and possibly as many as 18 times, a fact that most investigators will tell you points away from a random act of violence.

By Wednesday night, local media reports had nearly 200 people gathering in the area Wright's body was found as investigators combed the area for evidence and brought in a mobile command center.

"We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of Lorenzen Wright," Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley said in a statement. "We lost a member of the Grizzlies family. Lorenzen delighted fans on the court with his passion and off the court with his generosity in a Memphis community that watched him grow throughout his playing career at Booker T. Washington High School, the University of Memphis and the NBA."

Family and friends, meanwhile, are having a difficult time coming to terms with Wright's tragic end.

"Lorenzen's family has come together to mourn his loss and honor his legacy," his family said in a statement issued through their cousin, Camella Logan. "We appreciate your thoughts, prayers and condolences as they are comforting at this very difficult time. Additionally, we ask that you please respect our privacy as we try to cope with his sudden loss."

"I cried, the emotions hit me immediately," Hardaway told Eyewitness News in Memphis. "It's sad because we lost a good person and a brother."

Wright leaves behind six children and a mystery for Memphis to solve.

"To end his career and his life like this here in some woods, that's not good," friend Stan McKinley said. "You don't do a dog like this. It's just a really sad day for the city as a whole."

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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