Inside the Mysterious Slaying of NBA Star Lorenzen Wright: 'He Was a Bright Light'

Former NBA player Lorenzen Wright was a dynamic basketball star and a well-liked community member in his adopted city of Memphis. There, the longtime Memphis Grizzly player started a basketball camp for kids, used his celebrity to raise money for charity and gave motivational speeches to inner-city youths.

“Thousands of little boys looked up to him as a hero,” says his friend Gayle Rose of the 6-foot-11 power forward in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “He was a bright light.”

During his 13 seasons with the NBA, Wright earned $55 million playing with the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings and the Grizzlies.

But in July of 2010, the 34-year-old father of six turned up dead in a field — he’d been shot 11 times in the head, torso and right forearm. The crime shook the city, and the investigation into his killing is the subject of the upcoming episode of People Magazine Investigates, “Memphis Blues,” airing Monday, Dec. 9 at 10 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery. (An exclusive clip is shown above.)

“When Lorenzen was murdered, the city was in shock, absolutely shocked, because first of all no one ever thought something like this would happen and to one of our heroes,” Wright’s friend, Pastor Bill Adkins tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

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“When they found ‘Ren’s body, the city went on almost lockdown because one of our favorite sons was murdered. And the feelings were just so sad at the time for everybody, it was the biggest story in Memphis.”

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The question on everybody’s mind was: Who would want to kill such a popular man in Memphis?

“We wanted to know who would shoot him?,” says Adkins. “Why would someone kill Lorenzen? What did he do to deserve to be shot like that and left in a field to dissolve in the summer heat?”

The answer to that question would not come for another seven years.

People Magazine Investigates: Memphis Blues, airs Monday, Dec. 9 at 10 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery.