Glendale’s Wright Playing Games of Risk, Jeopardy : Prep basketball: Three-sport standout confounds coaches with tardiness, poor study habits.

Mike Wright’s head swirled with thoughts of three-point shots and dreams of thunderous dunks as he motored through Glendale in his mother’s car.

Suddenly, the vehicle sputtered to a halt. It was out of gas and Wright was out of luck.

He had no money. He was alone. And he was sure to miss Glendale High’s basketball game against Fresno Roosevelt that afternoon in the Hart tournament.

Wright scrambled and managed to get to the game, joining his teammates on the bench as the first half came to a close. Yet he did not join them on the court.

Coach Bob Davidson refused to put Wright, a 6-foot-4 senior forward and probably the team’s best player, in the game.

Wright pleaded his case, but it was already weakened by the fact that teammate Edgar Perkins was on the floor racking up career-high totals of 15 points and 15 rebounds in the Dynamiters’ 74-46 win. Wright was en route to picking up Perkins when his gas tank ran dry. Perkins managed another ride.

“I said we were all counting on him,” Davidson said, recalling the December incident. “I’ve been coaching for 15 years and I have never missed being somewhere on time when I was supposed to be there.”

Said Wright: “I told him that I ran out of gas, but he said, ‘You should have checked your car. You should have been here.’ He told me I let the team down.”

It was not the first time.

Last season, Wright was declared academically ineligible with one game left in the regular season. Without Wright for the playoffs, Glendale was eliminated in the first round with a 54-51 loss to Schurr.

This season, Wright is averaging team-high totals of 18.8 points and 6.3 rebounds for the Dynamiters, who are 10-5 entering tonight’s Pacific League opener at Crescenta Valley.

Davidson has not remained angry with Wright. Few coaches do, no matter the sport.

As gifted an athlete as they come, Wright can spring like a leopard, swish points from all over the front court and dash from one end of a football field to the other in about as much time as it takes to read this sentence.

Wright is the defending Southern Section 4-A Division champion in the long jump (23 feet 8 1/4 inches) and last fall was an All-Southern Section Division II selection as a wide receiver.

Wright probably could compete in any one of three sports at the NCAA Division I level. The only thing holding him back, it seems, is himself.

Although Wright is good-natured, bright and popular, he admits that he lacks motivation academically and has struggled to maintain his athletic eligibility.

As a junior, Wright failed two classes, which he made up in summer school. He has raised his grade-point average to 2.3 and is on pace to graduate in June.

But his academic performance is far from earning him the Division I scholarship that many schools undoubtedly would like to offer.

“He’s a great kid and you love the guy and he’s getting (college recruiting) letters from all over the country,” Glendale track Coach John Barnes said. “But he just flat turns his brains off when it comes to academics.”

Wright plans to attend Glendale College with hopes of transferring to a Division I school--provided he makes the grade.

“I can live with that,” Wright said of going to a junior college. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. If I can go there and do much better than I would going straight to a university, then I’ll benefit from it.”

Mealie Wright says that athletics are not the only abilities that come naturally to her son.

Before high school, Mike performed well in the classroom. As a 12-year-old, he won a community spelling bee in his hometown of Pomona, finishing first in a field of 100 competitors. And he always has excelled on aptitude tests.

“Mike is a very bright boy, he’s just lazy and he doesn’t want to do his homework and I can’t excuse him for that,” his mother said. “I don’t know what it is. He has his own library at home, his own encyclopedia, but he doesn’t go to them and use them.”

Wright flashes an embarrassed smile when discussing his shortcomings regarding study habits and punctuality. When he arrived 45 minutes late for an interview with a newspaper reporter, he sheepishly apologized for oversleeping.

“I’ve always been a little lazy,” he said. “I guess I figured, ‘I’m an athlete. Why would anyone fail me?’ But I decided to pick it up this year.”

So far, so good. But if Wright’s lazy days actually have passed, the pain of missing last season’s playoffs and the glimpse of opportunities that lie ahead might have something to do with it.

“He was like a sick calf around the house after he couldn’t play basketball last year,” Mealie Wright said. “I fed him steak and lots of protein juices and tried to get his spirits up. But he didn’t want to eat. I think it was a tough way to learn his lesson.”

Besides missing the playoffs, Wright missed being selected to the All-Pacific League team, earning only honorable mention.

“I’m not going to let that happen again,” he said. “That feeling of not being a part of things. . . . The guys didn’t show it, but I’m pretty sure they all felt like I let them down and that I should have been there.

“I began thinking, ‘I have all this talent and I’m not going to be able to do anything with it.’ ”

Whether he still can is debatable. Wright’s coaches say they have witnessed improvement--punctuality notwithstanding--partly because of his past problems.

“I think he has so much natural talent that he has never had to work hard at anything,” Davidson said. “I think he’s just starting to get the message.”

Playing organized football for the first time in his life might have helped.

The day Wright enrolled at Glendale at the end of his sophomore year as a transfer from Ganesha High in Pomona, Don Shoemaker, the school’s football coach, suggested that Wright try his hands at catching footballs.

Wright didn’t suit up for his first game until September. After playing in just one game, he caught the eye of a USC recruiter who promptly sent him an introductory letter to the school.

“When Mike first came out for football I could never be sure if he was going to be on time, and I always talked to him about his grades,” Shoemaker said. “But as time went on Mike made some tremendous strides, work-habits-wise.”

As one of the region’s most dangerous deep threats, Wright caught 40 passes, averaging 22.8 yards a reception.

“He’s the first receiver we’ve ever had that we could not overthrow, I don’t care who was throwing the ball,” Shoemaker said. “I’m not saying he’s as good as (Heisman Trophy winner) Desmond Howard (of Michigan), but I think, potentially, he’s as good as any receiver in the NCAA.”

Shoemaker, in fact, said that Wright’s best chance is to land a football scholarship. Davidson argues that Wright, an underrated ballhandler and outside shooter, could play college basketball on virtually any campus. He has scored 31 points in one game and had 15 rebounds in another.

“Last year, he was basically just an athlete on the basketball court,” Davidson said. “This year, he has become a dominating player.”

Barnes boasts that Wright has the talent to become an Olympian in track.

“In all my 35 years of coaching, I have never seen an athlete come out and do it with such ease,” Barnes said. “Do you realize he’ll probably be All-CIF in three sports?”

Wright is uncertain which route he’ll go. But perhaps that’s not the most important thing to be thinking about now.

Barnes, who pulls no punches in scolding Wright, said he fears that Wright’s options already might be slipping away.

“He’s got a lot going for him, but until by some intervention he gets his act together and learns that inner discipline, he’ll never play at a Division I college,” Barnes said. “Let’s just hope and pray that he wakes up.”