Lorenzen Wright made headlines as the seventh overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft - but he also won the hearts of so many because of his impact on thousands of kids who were inspired by him. Toney Armstrong, former director of police at the Memphis Police Department, who oversaw the investigation. As Memphis mourned, months turned into years and the city became obsessed with solving the murder of its favorite son.

Then, seven long years after the murder, police got the break they needed. Who wanted Wright dead, and how does a beloved basketball player's life end that way, Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, has always been a city of contrasts: famous for its place in music history and infamous for its place in the American civil rights movement. Dr. Bill Adkins: Memphis is a city that, unfortunately, has been divided by race for many, many years.

Pastor Bill Adkins has been a long-time advocate for unity in the City of Memphis. Dr. Bill Adkins | Lorenzen's mentor: It's a lot better than it used to be. But there are still divisions. Decisions … unfortunately, still made along racial lines. But in a city divided, both racially and economically, there is something that brings people together. Dr. Bill Adkins: Basketball in Memphis became -- a instrument of change … which brought races together. …You know, Memphis basketball was literally everything. And Lorenzen was a big part of that.

Once celebrated as one of Memphis' favorite sons, the memory of Lorenzen Wright still haunts this town. James Brown | CBS News special correspondent: Put in perspective how big the Lorenzen Wright story is here in Memphis. Marc Perrusquia: It's huge. I mean, Lorenzen Wright was a true hometown hero.

Marc Perrusquia has been writing for the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, for almost 30 years. Marc Perrusquia: We talk about big murders in the history of Memphis. You got Martin Luther King, OK, you can't trump that one, but he comes very close. James Brown: That significant, Marc Perrusquia: That significant.

Born in Oxford, Mississippi, Lorenzen Wright moved to Memphis to play basketball at Booker T. Washington High School. Let me go in here and deal with this. Have you talked to Lorenzen, Have you all made any headway on it, Where are you on it, … I just couldn't forget, you know, how I felt when I saw her; I thought she was beautiful. Her perfume was unfair, you know, and so, that's how it all started … I had never interviewed a woman and then dated her, never crossed the line.

James Brown: Never had gotten romantically involved with an interview subject, Kelvin Cowans: Never. Not one. Sherra was the first. Within six months she agreed to leave her marriage, leave Memphis, and move with him to Houston. Kelvin Cowans: Houston was my idea. James Brown: And she was up for it,

James Brown: What was life like with Sherra, Kelvin Cowans: It was great. Sherra was -- she's hilarious. She's funny. She's spiritual. She's a great mom. I mean, we had a great time. Even though Cowans had heard the rumors about Sherra's involvement with Lorenzen's murder, he remained devoted to her.

Kelvin Cowans: I didn't even believe she had anything to do with it. I wouldn't never moved away with her if I thought she was guilty. You have to understand she had just written a book about her life with Lorenzen, OK … and where I come from, you don't write books about people you helped to kill. By 2016, six years after the murder of hometown hero Lorenzen Wright, Memphis had all but given up hope that the crime would be solved.

Memphis Grizzlies' Lorenzen Wright, center, slides by Denver Nuggets' Kenyon Martin, left, and DerMarr Johnson, right, as he drives to the basket during the first quarter Friday, Feb. 25, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. James Brown: How did this impact the city as a whole, Marc Perrusquia: A cloud's hung over this city for some time. …the grief over, you know, losing Lorenzen. But then just this thing of, you know, why can't they catch these guys,