He talked briefly about everything from appreciating their parents and not “cutting the fool out here” to “don’t let anyone else define you.”
He showed kindness to a little girl who had the courage to ask a question — though off point, it meant a lot to her — but was unyielding when he asked seventh and eighth graders to report a little earlier, like 8 a.m., for a special treat and heard some grumbling and moans.
“What’s wrong with that?” he snapped. “What’s the problem? Y’all want to be professionals?”
When the answer was a muffled affirmative, he didn’t hedge: “Alright, be here at 8!”
And then, with a smile, he opened his arms wide, waggled his fingers inward and said warmly: “Alright, everybody…in tight. On the count of three, we’re going to say, ‘Family!’” Instantly, the 6-foot-8 Wright was surrounded by kids a foot, sometimes two, shorter than him. He extended his right arm and boys and girls of varied ages and shade, raised their hands to meet his, until they formed a bonding pyramid:
“One!...Two!...Three!... Family!”
And that’s when it was clear.
The past few days weren’t about the Red Scare.
They were about this black, white and brown embrace.
The night before this huddle, Wright had sat on the bench of the top-seeded Red Scare — a team made up primarily of former Dayton Flyers players like him — as they were upset by No. 8 seed India Rising, 77-67, in the TBT, $1 million, winner-take-all, single elimination tournament whose early rounds were played at UD Arena.
Although on the roster, he was not in uniform and did not play. Instead, he added verbal support to coaches Joey Gruden and Jeremiah Bonsu.
For several days prior, the 34-year-old Wright had been privately lobbied and publicly cajoled — Gruden asked an Arena crowd watching a pretournament practice to help persuade him to play with its applause — to come out retirement from a hoops career that included a Hall of Fame induction at UD and a decade as a pro, with NBA stints with the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks.
“When I didn’t play, some people were genuinely upset,” he said quietly.
The insinuation was he’d let the Red Scare and his alma mater down and, in some way, had sold himself short.
And nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Some people may look at it and say, ‘Well, you weren’t an NBA All-Star,’ but I made it to the NBA and just one in a million people do that,” he said. “I won a championship as a professional (in Israel) and I’ve travelled the world. Probably been to 30 countries. Being a kid from the West Side of Dayton (Summit Square apartments on Hoover Avenue, then Trotwood), that’s been a blessing.
“I had my time.
“But whatever you want to call me now, I know I’m more than that. I’m more than just a basketball player.”
He spends much of his time now fully immersed in the betterment of area kids and the support of his oft-overlooked hometown of Trotwood.
And he’s especially involved with his alma matter, which appreciates his efforts as an ambassador of the University of Dayton and someone who is helping build a bridge between an often, underserved part of the community and the celebrated school on the hill.
Former Dayton Flyers player Trey Landers — now playing professionally and originally from Huber Heights and Wayne High — put it to me best a few years ago: “He does so much for our community. He’s more than just a Dayton basketball player. He’s someone who gives back every way he can. And everyone should know it.”
In turn, Wright praised UD president Eric Spina for his efforts: “He’s doing one hell of a job. He has people with boots on the ground making this happen.”
While Wright didn’t take the court for the Red Scare, he has been pretty busy the past few days.
His camp – basketball and cheer sessions on Thursday and Friday; football on Saturday – involved 300 kids. He began the annual camp in 2014, but it had been sidelined by the COVID pandemic since 2020.
Friday he took seventh and eighth graders on a guided tour of the University of Dayton. For most of the students, it was their first time on a college campus and he wanted to stoke their imaginations and dreams.
His uncle, the Rev. J.D. Grigsby, who had played basketball for Don Donoher’s Flyers in the early 1970s, accompanied the group as a chaperone and explained the importance of this first visit for the youngsters:
“You can’t do no better if you don’t know no better.”
Wright is the principal figure in five businesses here, including Orion Sports Medicine in Miamisburg, and is best known for his Flyght Academy and the non-profit Wright Way Foundation, which includes after-school and post-grad educational programs, as well as mentoring sessions with business experts and other professionals.
The Flyght Academy sponsors camps and 14 teams — from post-grad basketball and football to a younger AAU group.
The older basketball team had Gruden as a coach two years ago and Juwan Staten last year. Dion Black coaches the football.
“We had 70 college offers for 26 football kids,” Wright said. “And in 2021, our 12 basketball guys all got scholarships. Nine were athletic, three, academic.”
Wright is in the process of building Flyghtwood — “it’s my name, Flyght, and Trotwood combined,” he said — which will be a sports, education and entertainment complex on 32 acres that housed the United Theological Seminary off Denlinger Road in Trotwood.
His Flyght Development LLC bought the property 19 months ago and he said he’s currently building a 50,000 square foot facility that will include basketball courts, a turf field, classrooms and other entities.
He said there would be an outdoor entertainment space, walking trails and other sports facilities.
“Some people say, ‘Why Trotwood? and have tried to get me to move it somewhere else,” he said. “But I’m from here. It’s my home and it’s my dream to one day see a campus where people are happy and thriving in a community that is often overlooked and where people get misconstrued.”
‘It’s OK to do the right thing’
Grigsby said he was one of nine kids. Another was Chris’ mom, Ernestine.
“Our parents came from Louisiana in the 1950s and they worked hard and set the tone,” he said. “My dad (J.D. Sr.) worked 30 years at a junkyard. Our mother (Naomi) did day work in Oakwood and Centerville until she became a beautician.
“They properly raised us to be respectful and taught us how to act toward our elders. They instilled a moral respect. “And Chris has learned that, too.”
He said a lot of his nephew’s lessons were hammered home by Ernestine, who raised 13 children, much of the time on her own.
Five were her own sons. She also adopted a niece and a nephew, took in foster children and said a few neighbor kids “moved in and never left.”
“She ruled with an iron fist,” J.D. said with a smile. “Some of those kids were afraid of her or at least what she said she would do if they didn’t do this or that. Really though, she’s a natural mentor of young men.
“When you bring in 12 and 13 year old foster kids who come from what some may say is the hood, or the ghetto, they can be too far gone for you to mold or shape. But she could get through to them and nurture them and they went on to play sports and get an education and succeed.”
Ernestine stressed hard work, going to church and, as Chris now parrots, “it’s OK to do the right thing.”
All her boys, as well as niece Nikki, are working. Two played in the NFL:
Nicholas, her nephew who is known as Freezer, was a linebacker with the New England Patriots and Detroit Lions. Her son Bam Bradley — his real name is George — was a Baltimore Ravens linebacker until a knee injury ended his career.
All Ernestine’s kids get nicknames. There’s Woosie and Bunk and Mick.
And how about Chris?
“He’ll kill me if I say it,” she said and then grinned. ‘It’s Sticks. He was all arms and legs, just sticks.
“He’s been a caring person since he was young,” she added. “He was always trying to help somebody, but I used to tell him – and I still do – ‘you can’t save everybody.’ “He used to get real mad when somebody would take advantage of him. I’d say, ‘People will see you’re kind-hearted and some people will try to use you.’
“When something would happen, I’d tell him afterward that they’d seen him comin’. That they’d seen ‘Stupid” written across his head.”
She shook her head and then amended that thought:
“He’s not stupid. He’s just got a heart bigger than most. Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s just a sweet person.”
He might be sweet, but he’s not soft or timid.
He’s shown time and again he has a mind of his own.
After helping lead the Ike Thornton-coached Trotwood-Madison Rams to the state tournament when he was a junior and becoming a top national recruit, he received scholarship offers from the likes of Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Texas, Florida and Xavier.
He chose Dayton, then coached by Brian Gregory, and his commitment was a major coup for UD, which back then wasn’t usually the first choice of hoops talents coming out of West Dayton.
“I wanted to build something special,” he said. “I wanted to come someplace where I could make a difference.”
And that’s what he did at Dayton.
He became one of the most beloved – and talented – players ever to wear a UD uniform. Although he missed half of his freshman season with a broken foot, he was named to the Atlantic 10′s All-Freshman team and went on to garner all-conference honors in the three following seasons.
A high-flier known for his rim-rattling dunks, he finished his career with 1,601 points.
After the last home game of his senior season – UD went 18-0 at UD Arena that year – Gregory said: “Right now he could run for mayor of Dayton...and win. And that’s not meant as any offense to the mayor. He’s just pretty popular right now.”
An undrafted free agent, he went on to a pro career that included a 2011 debut with the Golden State Warriors, making him the first UD player to make it to the NBA since Negele Knight in 1990.
He later played with the Milwaukee Bucks, was in preseason camps of other NBA teams and starred in the NBA’s G League and its developmental D-League, where he was a two-time all-star. He helped lead Maccabi Rishon Le Zion to an Israeli title in 2016, played in Poland and finally retired in January of 2022.
“I was a good basketball player, but that wasn’t my gift,” he now says. “That was my passion.
“My true gift is connecting people. And that’s what I’m trying to do now – connect UD and parts of the city that haven’t been that connected before.”
‘Dedicated’ and ‘commited’
Behind the scenes before Friday’s tour, he had to handle a last-minute crisis said Tiffany Taylor, UD’s Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion.
When the bus company cancelled late Thursday night, he had to find vans to transport the three dozen students and their chaperones.
“It’s heartwarming to see how dedicated and committed he is to those kids,” she said. “You want someone like that to be successful. You want to support him because of the impact he’s having, not only on those young people and his community, but on our university.
“We’re working with Chris and his Flyght Academy to find different ways we can partner and support his efforts and help the students so they can see UD as a possibility.”
Nate Perry, the Director of Recruitment and Admissions at UD, spoke to the students after their tour and told them some things they could work on in each of their four years of high school to prepare for a college career, whether it was at UD or Wright State or Sinclair or somewhere else.
Some of the kids asked questions. All saw things they hadn’t imagined were on a college campus and each took something home with them, whether it was knowledge, a UD T-shirt they were given or the water bottles and papers Wright made them pick up off the floor so the room they were in was spotless when they left.
Back at the camp, the championship basketball games were played and as the winners celebrated, some of the losers were in tears.
When the youngster finally went home, they were drained and fulfilled and carried along one, resonating message from Wright:
“Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. Don’t let anyone else define you.”
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