By Noah Perkins
After 17 years, 59 countries and too many jump shots to count, Rasheim Wright didn’t want his career to end like this.
“I’ve been robbed of my senior night in college; I’ve been robbed of the NCAA Tournament; and now I’m robbed of my final year in basketball,” lamented Wright, 39, who turned pro prior to his senior season at the University of the District of Columbia, following the suspension of the basketball program because of rules violations.
Wright, a native of Uptown, Philadelphia, most recently had been playing in the Armenian professional league, when COVID-19 halted sports around the globe, forcing him to face his own basketball mortality.
“I just want to play one or two more games to say goodbye on my terms,” Wright said. “I was going to be done after this year anyway.”
His final game came on March 12.
“I had a triple-double,” Wright said.
Little consolation for the 6”4’ guard.
“I’m still playing at an exceptionally high level,” Wright said. “I’m just mad I couldn’t finish the way I wanted.”
With the prospect of being marooned in Armenia sans paycheck, Wright returned to the states in mid-March. For a time, he remained optimistic that another job would be waiting for him somewhere when the sport returned. But, the market for import players abroad has been reshaped by the pandemic.
“The way the market is set up overseas, they are taking more young players for less money,” he said.
“There aren’t too many opportunities for a 39-year-old. My time is my time, I’m not going to keep sitting and waiting.”
Wright’s ability to put up points in abundance took him to leagues in Bosnia, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Lebanon and the Philippines – just to name a few.
“The worst situation was Iraq,” Wright remembered. “The electricity was going out six times a day; the housing was terrible; the bathrooms were awful. You couldn’t go outside and get food. I dipped after like a month.”
“To get out of Iraq is crazy,” Wright continued. “You have to take a taxi to another taxi; taxi to the airport. There are only a couple of flights that leave a day. I missed my flight and had to sleep in the airport and then catch a bus – I’ll never forget that, it was horrible.”
The best stretch of his career came in Jordan, where Wright became a naturalized citizen and competed for the nation’s national team.
During the 2010 World Cup, Wright averaged 15 points per game for an overmatched Jordanian team that played against global powerhouses Germany, Serbia, Argentina and Australia. Against Argentine NBA players Carlos Delfino and Pablo Prigioni, Wright went for 22 on an 8-for-13 shooting effort.
“I had never heard of Jordan,” Wright remembered. “That was the biggest achievement of my career. Shedding blood, sweat and tears for the country – there really aren’t any words to describe it.”
Wright’s career lasted so long that in 2019, with the birth of a granddaughter, he became perhaps the only professional basketball player doubling as a grandparent.
“They [teammates] called me ‘pop-pop’ and ‘grandpa’,” Wright said. “ ’Hey old pop-pop, you cool?’ It was out of love.”
In the infancy of his career, Wright chased an NBA dream, twice playing in the NBA Summer League – with the Detroit Pistons and hometown Philadelphia 76ers.
“I [had bricks in my stomach] the first time I got in a game,” Wright remembered. “[In my first televised game] the first time I touched the ball they called a travel – I was shook. I’m in front of everyone, family is watching on TV. ‘Am I really at NBA Summer League?’ I’m on a court with Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson, Will Blaylock, Mateen Cleaves. Against the Knicks, Nate Robinson is talking back to me, ‘Look at this rookie wearing And1’s.’ I was nervous, but it was awesome.”
The second go-round went more smoothly.
“That time I was seasoned; I knew what to expect,” Wright said. “I should have made that roster. [Then 76ers player] Kevin Ollie vouched for me. It is political. I had folks tell me, ‘It’s not a good look if you are out there embarrassing our draft picks.’ What did they want me to do? Once I got the Jordanian passport, I never looked back at the NBA again.”
A two-sport star at Martin Luther King High School, Wright excelled on the basketball court and as a quarterback for the football team.
He sharpened his game in high school traveling around the city in search of the perfect pickup run.
“I grew up playing with guys like John Cox, Aaron Owens, Flip Murray,” Wright remembered. “My era was tough. We used to go all over the city to different neighborhoods. We played outside until midnight. Every hood had standouts.”
Things have changed a lot from his day, and Wright is skeptical about much of how the current crop of up-and-coming hoopers is learning the game.
“Things are too catered to highlights and social media,” Wright said. “There is a lot of yes men now – no one is ever pointing out flaws. Anyone can make a tape; highlights don’t mean anything. When you get down into the trenches your [number of] followers don’t mean anything. Some kids are born to do this, some aren’t.”
According to Wright, the key to longevity is “loving what you do.”
“You have to keep working,” Wright said. “Don’t be a [jerk] and make sure you love what you do or there is no need to be there.”
It isn’t the ending he wanted, but 17 years of consistency means something.
“All I know is basketball,” Wright said. “What else was I going to do? If I can’t beat my man to the spot or hit an open jump shot consistently, there is no need for me to do this no more – but I was still doing it. People in my corner were telling me to keep going until the wheels fall off. The ball don’t always bounce that way.”
