It was Halloween of 2021 when everything changed for Tyrone Wright.
He had graduated high school five months before but wasn't sure where he was headed or what was next.
He received an invitation from his cousin, Tajauna Aligwekwe, to attend a Halloween party. He credits that invitation with leading him where he is today, slamming dunks home as a starting center for the basketball team at Missouri Southern State University.
"If it wasn't for my cousin, I don't know where I'd be," Wright said.
Upon his arrival, Aligwekwe knew right away that Wright had been sleeping in his car.
"I had all my clothes in the backseat. You could tell somebody had been sleeping in there," Wright said.
Wright stayed at Aligwekwe's place overnight, where she and her father, Wright's uncle, Quincy, lived in a two-bedroom apartment. As he went to leave the next day, Aligwekwe asked a question that changed the recent high school graduate's path for good.
"Ty, do you have somewhere you can lay your head at night?" she asked.
"No, I don't," he answered.
So Wright stayed on the couch in the living room of his uncle and cousin's place until he got his feet under him.
Wright hadn't been living at home because he and his mother, April Turner, had grown apart. He spent some time at houses of friends and some family. After graduating from Cedar Grove High School in May, he said he was "living out of my car by June."
In October, Aligwekwe noticed that and offered him a place to stay.
"That's exactly what I needed to get here (MSSU)," Wright said.
Aligwekwe's father, Quincy Wright, was a truck driver and spent a lot of time on the road.
That left a quiet apartment for two young adults, and Wright spent most of his time doing something he said he couldn't do before. When living out of his car, he was constantly thinking about how to get his next meal or how he was going to wash himself for the next day. Now, Wright was able to sit and think about what was next for him.
He got a job working at a Walmart warehouse. But after some time passed and his uncle had been in and out of the apartment after coming home from the road, there were discussions about Wright finding something he could do so he didn't have to stay on the couch at that apartment.
What that brought to his attention was that he wanted something different too.
'Something different'
"I was working 12-hour shifts in the back of a trailer all day just stacking boxes," Wright said. "I was in there with people 30, 40, 50 years old. I started to think, 'Man, I have to do something different. I don't want to do this forever.'"
There were many evenings he would just lie around watching basketball videos on his phone. Seeing some of the young players flourishing at the game of basketball who were around his age inspired him. His uncle started to motivate him as well, reminding Wright that the opportunity to go play wouldn't be there forever.
During high school, basketball wasn't really an interest of Wright's. His experience with organized basketball — on a team with a coach — was next to none.
He started to play in basketball tournaments here and there with his friends and would get video at those events to try to send to coaches.
Once he had enough footage to create a highlight video, he punched the send button to many junior college coaches. One in Marion, Alabama, had his interest piqued.
Collin Dimitroff decided to visit an LA Fitness in Atlanta to come and watch Wright play. Dimitroff was an assistant at Marion Military Institute and liked what he saw enough to bring the 6-foot-9 guy on the team.
"He drove like four or five hours, seen me play, and I haven't really played organized basketball, so I'm very raw then," Wright said. "I'm still skinny now, but I was real skinny then. I weighed like 175, and I'm like 205 now."
Wright was explaining just how much of a risk Dimitroff took to come watch him play.
Dimitroff admitted that Wright needed a lot of growth in his basketball game when he first met the tall and lanky hooper. Wright was a little green in the skills department.
"Just a hard worker and knew he wanted to get better and basketball was his only option," Dimitroff said of Wright. "He's continued to work every single day to get to where he is today."
One reason Wright wanted to leave the warehouse and find something better for himself was actually for someone else.
The 21-year-old grew up with four siblings in his mother's home in Atlanta. His younger brother, Terrell, was the only sibling who shared the same father.
He said the two grew up without really knowing their father, who was incarcerated when Tyrone Wright was 5.
Wright said for a while as a teen he started to get into some trouble.
"Nothing crazy" he said, adding: "That's when young men need their fathers."
His brother was in his junior year of high school while Wright was working at the warehouse. Going to Marion Military Institute to play basketball was an opportunity to be a good example for his little brother.
So, despite not having any sort of a military background or any family with experience in it, Wright joined the school. He played two years of basketball, learned discipline, how to operate on a strict schedule with some strict rules and mature as a person along the way.
"It was the best two years of my life because I learned so much about myself, for real," Wright said. "All the rules at the school were good for me. I needed discipline. I needed all the things the school was teaching me."
Success on the hardwood
Wright was successful on the hardwood, as he averaged 13.5 points per game as a sophomore for the Tigers and 10.5 rebounds. And that was just his second season of organized basketball.
He's thankful for Dimitroff and all he's done for him, but he also wanted to give thanks to his head coach at MMI, Timothy Rodgers, for being a part of teaching that discipline to him.
"He understood and appreciated everything that everyone at Marion was doing for him. ... When a kid is willing to learn, it's very easy to work with them and push them," Dimitroff said. "That first year, Tyrone kind of let his emotions get the best of him. He's a passionate person. That first year, we worked on controlling his emotions and putting that into positive energy."
Now at MSSU, Wright can look back and see that a lot of how his life has unfolded worked out "exactly" the way he needed it to in order to get to Joplin.
The invitation to the Halloween party from his cousin, then the offer to stay at the apartment for a while, getting to Marion Military Institute and then ending up at Missouri Southern.
Wright chose MSSU after his two years of junior college because Dimitroff had a connection and relationship with Lions head coach Sam McMahon. To add to the pieces of the puzzle falling right into place, after Wright committed to Southern in May 2024, Dimitroff was hired on as an assistant to McMahon in August and joined Wright in Joplin.
"It's outside of me. … It's just God," Wright said.
Wright has brought an average of 7 ppg to the Lions this winter for the fifth-most points on the team. He pulls down 6.4 rpg to lead the crew.
"He's a great kid — tremendous kid. Great character. He brings a tremendous energy each and every day," McMahon said. "He's a better teammate. He wants to win. He wants to get along with his teammates. He's a joy to be around.
"It's amazing where he's at. For him to have the mental fortitude and toughness ... the fight to get to this level ... he has a burning desire to play basketball and play at the highest level possible."
That rebound mark is good for seventh-best in the entire MIAA conference this year. He is tied for fifth in the MIAA with 1.1 blocks per game. The big man has blocked 24 shots this season.
While he's on the court having success in the green and gold, he's able to clear his mind. Wright considers it "therapy" or his "escape." He has been known to show some emotion in various ways this year, but he says that's just him being fired up, something he believes the team needs.
"That's just the fire and passion I bring to the game," he said.
It hasn't all been about success on the court since coming to Joplin. Wright tries not to compare his situation to others, but sometimes it's hard not to, and when he looks around, he sees that his peers have family and friends coming to watch them play.
"Nobody's out here for Tyrone. … Sometimes it hurts. I'll be honest. … For the holidays, for Christmas, I stayed out here. Teammates invited me to their house and stuff, but I didn't feel comfortable," Wright said.
But being a part of a team and seeing what coaches and other people have done for him, he's been able to find family beyond the bloodline.
"I learned that family can be a stranger. There are strangers that have done more for me than my own family," Wright said. "Collin Dimitroff has done so much for me from the kindness of his heart."
While his youth may not have been what he may have hoped, he holds no grudges toward his parents. In fact, he believes Turner did all she could to be a mom for him.
"I'm going to say my mom did a great job. Even though ... we don't really talk … I'll always thank her for how she raised me," Wright said. "She taught me values and morals. She taught me everything she could."
Wright said it has been more than a year since he has spoken to his mother.
As he finishes his last two years in college, Wright hopes to obtain his college degree to become just the second person in his family to do so. His older sister, Damesia Jenkins, is the only other member to get a degree. Jenkins works as an educator.
Wright said he would like to play basketball beyond the college level if possible but that he would be happy starting a career as well. If he ends up in a position to help family he says he will just "make sure" he and Terrell Wright "are straight." His little brother is the only family member Wright is in constant contact with today.
Wright also wanted to be sure and shout out his talented 6-foot-10 brother as he hopes to further his playing career beyond the junior college level.
"Terrell Wright. Snead State. He's good. He's real good. He's probably going to play in this conference or a Division I conference soon," he said.