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Court documents: Former Knicks pick Michael Wright's life came to a horrifying end

ben rohrbach
Senior NBA writer
Former Chicago prep star, Arizona Wildcat and Knicks draft pick Michael Wright was adored by teammates. (Getty Images)
Former Chicago prep star, Arizona Wildcat and Knicks draft pick MichaelWright was adored by teammates. (Getty Images)

It’s been almost a year since former New York Knicks draft pick Michael Wright was found dead underneath a garbage bag in the backseat of a Lexus SUV parked on a Brooklyn street on Nov. 10, 2015, and recent court documents uncovered by multiple media outlets are even more horrifying.

The 35-year-old Wright was drugged and killed with an ax, according to the court documents. Wright’s longtime roommate, Mark Holdbrooks, 59, and an alleged accomplice, David Victor, 35, were charged on Tuesday with murder, possession of an ax with intent “to use it unlawfully against another” and possession of the date rape drug GHB, among other crimes related to Wright’s death, per USA Today.

According to the New York Daily News, detectives believe the two men drugged Wright and killed him with a blow to the head at the house he shared with Holdbrooks in Closter, N.J., before Victor transported the body in the back of an SUV and abandoned both on East 16th Street in Brooklyn.

Wright’s two young daughters lived with the men in the Closter home. Holdbrooks, who reported Wright missing on Nov. 8, 2015, telling authorities he hadn’t seen his roommate in three days, served as the children’s guardian, according to Wright’s ex-trainer Dave Paladino’s account to CBS New York.

“It’s kind of disturbing, now that they have to learn Mark, who was their guardian, is now their father’s murderer,” Paladino told the local television news station. “It’s very disturbing, very tragic.”

Paladino reportedly raised $1,300 from members who met Wright as he rehabbed from injury at the gym. The trainer delivered the check to Holdbrooks, who has also been charged with providing false info to police and theft in excess of $75,000. Holdbrooks and Victor each await trial on $3 million bail.

Wright played at Chicago’s Farragut Academy with former NBA MVP Kevin Garnett and Illinois high school basketball legend Ronnie Fields. Wright played three seasons under Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson at the University of Arizona, reaching the 2001 NCAA title game in his junior season, when he started alongside future NBA players Gilbert Arenas, Luke Walton, Richard Jefferson and Loren Woods.

“Kevin was the quiet guy at first and the hard-working one,” Fields recalled in the Chicago Tribune. “I was the more serious, laid-back, smooth guy. Michael was the funny guy. He always had fun.”

Wright then entered the 2001 NBA draft, and the Knicks selected him 38th overall in the second round. The 6-foot-8, 238-pound power forward never appeared in a regular-season NBA game, but played professionally all over Europe from 2001-15, beginning in Poland and most recently in France.

“He left his French team in February (2015) and was planning to go back to Europe and play,” Wright’s cousin, Randolph Berry, told the Chicago Sun-Times shortly after the homicide in November 2015. “The last time I talked to him he thought he had two more years left, he wasn’t planning on retiring.”

Arizona endowed a scholarship in Wright’s name after his death. Among the earliest donors were Walton, the current Los Angeles Lakers coach, and Jefferson, still playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!