The Olympiacos big man was sidelined between November and March
Moses Wright’s journey from a serious health scare to the Final Four
Final Four News
3 Minute de lecture
It has been a season of major highs and real lows for Olympiacos Piraeus center Moses Wright.
While there is the joy of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague sophomore heading to his second straight Final Four, a five-month spell on the sidelines put a real dampener on the 26-year-old’s campaign.
But this was not because of an injury. No, Wright was dealing with a respiratory illness that could have threatened his career.
“I’m just thankful that I had family and friends who prayed for me at the time,” Wright told Euroleague.net’s Geoff Gillingham during Olympiacos's media availability, one day before its EuroLeague semifinal matchup with with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
“There was a hesitation that I could even play basketball again at first, so I went back to my faith and went back to the people who I hold closest to me. They were really my support circle at that time, so it was just great to have family and friends around me.”
His final EuroLeague appearance before his extended absence came in Round 11 against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, then he returned in Round 31 on the road at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. In that time, Olympiacos continued to fight to be among the top-ranked teams in the standings, but Wright had to watch on from a distance.
“The doctors said the only thing I can do is do nothing because if I were to start working out again, it would stir up the infection,” he said. “The team let me go home [to the United States] for a while to see my family and be closer to them, so I’m grateful for that. I’m just glad to be hooping again.”
Once back in the U.S., the former Georgia Tech standout would sometimes call up his teammates after Olympiacos’s games and wish that he was on the floor with them.
“I’m on the couch watching the game back in the United States and I called a couple of them,” Wright recalled. “With the time difference, it was like midday that I’m watching [Olympiacos play] and I’m like, ‘Man, this is some BS.’ Glad to be fighting with them again now.”
It naturally took Wright a couple of games to get back into rhythm once he returned, going scoreless at ASVEL and netting 2 points against AS Monaco in Round 32, but in the last two games of the regular season he had 8 and 18 points, respectively, as well as at least 1 block in each game and multiple rebounds.
“I’d been out the game so long that you just feel antsy to get back out there and show everybody, especially since it wasn’t a bone injury or anything, that I’ve still got it,” he said. “It was great to put up those numbers, get some explosive dunks.”
Wright, who played in Games 3 and 4 of the playoff series against Real Madrid, finds himself behind the likes of Nikola Milutinov and Moustapha Fall in Olympiacos’s center rotation, but he has shown this season the inner strength that he has – a quality that should come in handy if his number is called at this Final Four.
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