BOULDER – Basketball is the special gift of McKinley Wright IV. But his unique magic, found in the Roman numeral that stands like an exclamation point at the end of his name, is a love so strong it can break down prison walls.
“The Fourth. Yes sir, that’s me,” said Wright, averaging 12 points and four assists as the Colorado Buffaloes’ point guard. “That Roman numeral means everything to me … I want everyone to know I’m McKinley Wright the Fourth.”
The Fourth is the first thing you need to know about Wright, immediately after he details the worst day of his life, when the police came knocking in December 2005, and sent his father tumbling down the path to prison.
“I remember everything. I remember how he went to prison. I remember that exact day. We were going to Chicago to see my family … We were packing up, about to leave. Mom forgot something in the house. She went in to house. Me and my dad were in the car. We ended up going back in the house, and the police came … and raided our house. I remember like it was yesterday, man. If I had to, I could tell the story second by second. It will be in my mind forever,” said Wright, as we sat in the CU Events Center after a recent practice.
What are you thankful for today? Although the Buffs are undefeated and ranked No. 21 in the country. Wright feels blessed he got his “Pops” back from the abyss.
This is a story of love and basketball, which sustained a frightened young boy when his father was busted 14 years ago for trafficking in crack cocaine.
“I am thankful my son is such a strong young man that’s still in my life. He means the world to me. A lot of kids where my son grew up went down the street of drugs, gangs and all the bad stuff, the street where I lived. My son was stronger than me,” McKinley Wright III said.
A proud father, free after doing a long stretch in prison, will carve the Thanksgiving bird alongside family in Minnesota, and wish a CU junior he still calls “Baby Boy” was at the table instead of nearly 1,000 miles away, working on his game with the Buffs in Boulder.
“He’s got ball to play,” McKinley Wright III said. “But I’ll see him at Christmas. And when he’s home, I spend every minute with him I can. To make up for lost time.”
McKinley Wright III was the son of addicts. Drugs were in his blood. Drugs became his business in the small town of Clinton, Iowa. Police found a gun when they raided his home. After the trial ended with a guilty verdict in 2008, the judge read a handwritten note from a 7-year-old boy. Young McKinley Wright IV pleaded to the court for mercy on his Pops: I need him. He can get a job, have a great career. Maybe he can play sports. He won’t do anything wrong. Will you pretty please let him out of jail? I miss him very much.
“When he went to prison, I didn’t have a father figure in my life,” the CU star recalled. “I was a young boy. You watch TV, you watch all these shows. You see all these happy families with mom, dad, brothers, sisters. You want that as a kid. I wanted that. I wanted my Dad. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have him. He made some mistakes. But those mistakes don’t define him.”
The Fourth refused to abandon his father, who called or wrote from prison every single day.
“When you’re in the penitentiary, you don’t dare think about the outside world, because that will distract you from getting through the day,” said McKinley Wright III, who was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in ’08.
As part of a rehab program, the prisoner was required to write a letter to himself in the voice of his son. “Man, I felt every word of that letter. And at least 20 grown men I showed it to in prison cried,” said the father of a slender guard who grew up to be Mr. Minnesota Basketball for Champlin Park High School. “I never threw away that letter. I’ve kept it to this day.”
McKinley Wright III refused to wrap his arms around the promise of freedom until his parole day in 2017. In fact, he was reluctant to share the good news with anyone until after walking out of a penal institution in Duluth, and heading straight to a nearby hotel room where his son had fallen asleep, thinking the family had gathered for nothing more than another brief visit to prison.
“What’s up, Baby Boy?” announced McKinley Wright III, as he roused a startled teenager from slumber.
“Aw, Dad! Dad? Dad!” exclaimed McKinley Wright IV, hugging a father he never stopped missing during the decade they were separated by penitentiary walls.
A child is a desperate need so powerful it can open the aching heart of a drug dealer that didn’t know what he needed most was the healing power of love. He used to be known as “Sweet.” If wanted crack, you contacted Sweet. But that was then. Now, McKinley Wright III drives a forklift for a living, and saves money from every paycheck to buy fresh sneakers or a new car battery for his Baby Boy.
“I’m 21 years old now. I’m a grown man. He still calls me ‘Baby Boy.’ It is what it is. I respect it. That’s my ‘Pops.’ That’s my Dad,” said the unquestioned leader of CU’s locker room.
For what are you thankful? For a father and son in a family now known more for hoops than drugs, it’s a shared dream so real they can practically reach out and touch it:
When the Buffs trot on the court in March for the NCAA Tournament, the Fourth and his Pops will be living that dream together in the arena, proudly wearing CU colors.
“Colorado will be in the Big Dance,” McKinley Wright III vowed. “I will be in the building. And I’ll be the loudest one there.”