Baseball for Basketball

This archived article was written by: Michaella Crooks

Nathaniel Wright comes from a family that is sport orientated and independent. He grew up with, “just me and my mom until my brother came into the world three years later and I have a 12 year-old sister.” Wright is 6-foot-5-inches tall and weighs 210 pounds. He plans on becoming a sports broadcaster, majoring in communications and minoring in marketing.”
Tattoos are something special to him, “one on my wrist that means God, family, basketball, those are my morals. Another one by my elbow that says I’m second, which means I’m second to God because he is first. Then I have a rose, and next to the rose is my brother, sister and moms’ initials and under that is family is forever. The last one is Philippians 4:13, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”
Spring time is his favorite time of the year because, “it’s my birthday month, it’s not too hot, not to cold and you can play outside, go to the beach and just have fun.” He doesn’t have one favorite actor, he has four: “Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Denzel Washington and my favorite actress is Angelina Jolie.” His favorite movie is “I’m a movie fanatic so anything unless it’s a scary movie or chick flick.”
Some favorite family traditions of the Wrights are, “every summer I go back home. I’m originally from St. Louis, so I always go back home to see my family. I live in California now, so I don’t get to see my family as often.” Being away from home, “has been hard and at times. I want to give up and go back home, but know that I am out here for a greater purpose and know I’m doing this for my family.” Wright loves the, “intensity, effort and the pace of basketball. It’s something I’m good at and enjoy the time I get to play.”
Wright’s first sport he played was, “baseball. I played since I was 5 years old. I had to give it up my senior year in high school for basketball.” Sometimes he regrets the decision to give up baseball because, “my uncle and brother play and are getting drafted so they are reaching the dreams that I wanted much sooner than I am.” Wright’s favorite memory at USU Eastern is, “my first home game, it was pretty fun just playing with my brothers.”
Wright’s most prized possession is, “my shoes. I would buy shoes constantly if I could. Last time I counted, I had over 50 pairs of shoes, mostly Nikes and Jordons.”
If he could have any super power he would have, “mind control. With mind control you could control anything you want to.” Wright’s hero in life is, “My mother because she has been through so much at a young age. Out of everyone in my family, she has done everything she said she was going to do. She did a lot of things on her own without help. That motivates me to do it on my own just like she did.”
Advice to anyone who is thinking about playing basketball, Wright says to, “make sure you enjoy it and make sure you have fun and it’s something you enjoy so you can put the work towards it.” He says that the season so far, “has gone pretty well, there’s a lot of things we need to improve on but that just takes maturity, more experience over time and time for us to gel together and get to know each other.” Wright looks forward to, “going far and I know we are going to win conference, go to Hutch and, hopefully, I pray that we will win it all.