Holly MacKenzie - Raptors.com
Delon Wright and his family were running through the 6 on zero sleep. The newest Raptor arrived in Toronto on Friday morning with his parents, Stacy and Ray, after taking a red-eye flight from Los Angeles at 1 A.M. last night.
Meeting with the Toronto media for the first time, the 22-year-old hadn't slept, aside from a few restless hours on the flight, since he woke up at 9 A.M. on draft day ready for his life to change.
“A shock went through my body,” Wright said. “I think my brother [NBA veteran Dorell Wright] jumped up before me so I didn’t even make it up. I saw him jumping up and it was like ‘Damn, I got my name called.’ It was a fun thing.”
Wright spent the night with his family at a draft party with a couple hundred members of his closest friends and family. His mother, Stacy Adams Wright, almost missed the moment because she was tending to party guests.
“Of course, I was running late a little bit so when I get there I was trying to greet everybody. They had a reserved section for me on the couch and they kept saying to me, ‘Mom, can you sit on the couch? Mom could you just sit on the couch?’” Adams Wright said. “It was very exciting and like Delon mentioned, he thinks Dorell jumped up before him. I was sitting right next to Delon. It was special.”
It was something that had almost happened a year before.
"To be honest, I told my coach I was leaving [last season],” Wright said. “He was out of town and he told me to wait before submitting my papers and meet with him. We talked for about two hours, him and our assistant coach. He told me the pros and cons of making that decision and I believed him, that I could come back and have a better year. My parents, my brother told me I needed to come back too and I didn’t want to go against all those decisions. I wanted to come back and get my degree.”
Wright’s parents reflected on the situation and admitted it was a long week for the family who only wanted what was best for him longterm.
“I think the extra year did him a lot [of good],” Ray said. ”I think last year, he was saying he wanted to get into the draft and I told him I thought it was a bad decision. [I said], ‘I think you should wait, finish your school. If you leave the year before you’re like a year away from your degree, you might not go back to school [to get your degree], you know what I mean? You’re there, just finish it. Wait till next year. I don't think this is your time, last year. This year, this is your time.’ You see where we’re at right now.”
The defensive-minded point guard has had an eventful, unorthodox journey to becoming a first-round pick. His path has taken him from Los Angeles where he left high school without a diploma, to a short-lived prep-school experience in Philadelphia, to two years at San Francisco City College before his final two seasons at Utah where he developed into the player that the Raptors had at the top of their draft board.
As Wright held up his #55 Raptors jersey, his parents stood behind the assembled media and watched their son begin the next step in his career.
“He did it and he has his degree and he’s here,” Ray said. “He did what he was supposed to do.”
With the draft in the rearview mirror, Wright is aware the real work begins now.
“To finally make it, it's just crazy, honestly,” Wright said. “I've dreamed of this but I didn't know how it would happen. I'm ready to get it started.”