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Mark W. Wright

@wright_one

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I post lots of pics — mostly of @hkeetswright.
🇬🇧born➡️🇯🇲bred➡️🇺🇸made

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🎥 Since all the cool kids are takin’ it back to 2016, @kamwanaholley and I figured we’d join the party—and bring out the documentary that saw our names roll in the credits together for the first time.

🎥Thanks to “Redemption Song,” the @officialspikelee-executive produced @ESPN doc on @howard1867’s swagged-out and dominant teams of the 1970s, our bond is sealed. Maybe forever.

🎥Most importantly, we completed the assignment: to give flowers to the first—and still only—HBCU soccer team to win a Division I national championship.

‼️link to doc in bio‼️

#RedemptionSongFilm #BisonRedemption #HBCUstories #TwentySixteenAgain taken in Gastonia, North Carolina by @wright_one

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6 months ago

After all these years he still takes me to fancy places with fancy people and gives me fancy flowers — these I’ll keep in the form of the most extraordinary belt I’ve ever seen @TheMet in the #Superfine exhibit. We laughed and danced and one of us drank too much wine. And when I could barely keep my eyes open he flew me home, looking like Gaylord Keets. Happy Anniversary, Mr. Right. by @wright_one

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a year ago

📍August 16 —

Happy Birthday in Heaven, Cuz …

We miss you. We miss your laugh — that crazy, thunderous, echoey laugh.🤭

The village is hardly the same since you left.

Still grateful for the time we had, and especially for the way you personally championed me near the end of your life here on Earth. I’ll never forget it.

Godspeed, Juliet.🙏🏽 by @wright_one

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2 months ago

🎙️Division I men’s soccer teams around the country began official training today. 
🎙️And for me, this is the best time of year. 
🎙️I have a son in the game, along with a whole lot of “nephews” whose journeys I’ll be following from campuses across the country. They’re all chasing the same dream: a chance to lift the coveted @ncaa National championship trophy. 
🎙️But this time of year also brings a mix of emotions. As I watch teams begin their pursuit of a title, I can’t help but think about my alma mater, @howard1867 University — and the asterisk that still remains attached to its 1971 national championship, a title later stripped by the @NCAA. 
🎙️For the players who earned that championship, for their families, and for everyone who has carried their story forward for more than five decades, I continue to hope that justice is served and that this decision is overturned in their lifetime.
 🎙️The Bison Project, a 3-episode investigative podcast, tells the story of that unforgettable 1971 season — and the team’s triumphant return to the top with another national championship in 1974.
 🎙️This time of year is another reminder to Bison Nation that the fight continues.
 Listen. Share. Help tell their story.

✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽

#theBisonProjectPodcast #LinkInMyBio taken in Howard University by @wright_one

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2 months ago

‼️BREAKING NEWS‼️(6/23/2026):

📍The @ncaa has officially approved an age-based eligibility model for Division I athletics, giving student-athletes 5 years of eligibility to compete in up to 5 seasons.

📍What does this mean exactly? “Waiver approvals will slowly start to decrease which is partly why this rule was implemented,” explained @ayazh1982 to @wright_one on the Press Pause podcast.

📍“It makes the system more cohesive … and that’s going to play a big part in our business and it will be interesting to see how this affects the next recruiting class,” he went on.

📍While this is indeed breaking news, it’s a topic that’s been discussed for quite some time — a new rule that essentially eliminates redshirts across college sports.

📍How will this “five-for-five” rule affect the transfer portal era? We discussed … so pull up and tap in to this informative — and timely — episode.

⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️

Episode #LinkInBio #StudentAthletePathways #NCAASoccer #SoccerTransferPortal by @wright_one

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3 months ago

‼️Edson Arantes do Nascimento is the GOAT‼️  📍Numbers and trophies aside (and the numbers are🔥), @pele could have played in any era—including today—and dominated. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s take a trip down memory lane to 1973, when @brasil’s greatest player visited the campus of @howard1867.
 📍It was just over two years after @howardmsoccer had captured their first national championship — shocking the college soccer world. This photo—snapped during Pelé’s trip to Washington, D.C., with his club team Santos to play a series of friendlies against the NASL’s Baltimore Bays—shows him alongside Howard players Ian Bain (my high school coach), Trevor Mitchell, Desmond Alfred, William Aboko Cole, and assistant coach Michael “Billy” Jones.
 📍But this wasn’t just a photo op. Just before Pelé’s visit, the @ncaa had stripped Howard of its 1971 national championship and barred the Bison from postseason play in 1973. The team needed what head coach Lincoln Phillips would later call a “pick-me-up,” and the Trinidadian—then a goalkeeper with the Bays—shot his shot and invited Pelé himself to meet his boys.
 📍“Everybody looked up to him, all over the world,” Phillips told my good friend (and one of the best soccer writers in the country), @pablomaurer, for a piece he wrote for @theathleticfc in 2023.

📍“It was very pleasing, for me, as the coach of these players, to bring Pelé to the campus and personally introduce them. And you know, because it was Pelé, I think it kind of put me up a few notches in everybody’s eyes, too.”
 📍We’ll never know whether Pelé’s visit in 1973 was the catalyst for Howard’s second national championship the following season, but if I made that suggestion here—which I clearly am—who would argue?
 #RIPPele #HowardStories #BisonRedemption #TheBisonProject taken in Howard University by @wright_one

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4 months ago

📡NEW EPISODE‼️

📌College soccer is changing before our very eyes, and the transfer portal — introduced in 2018 — has given student-athletes something they’ve never truly had: greater control over their careers, personal brands, and future.

📌But success in this emerging landscape requires more than connections; it demands expertise. Enter Ayaz Hafeez (@ayazh1982) and Scotty Collinson (ScottyCollinson), whose recruitment and advisory firm, Student Athlete Pathways (@studentathletepathways), helps athletes make informed decisions on everything from the transfer portal and NIL opportunities to player branding and recruiting.

📌Ayaz and Scotty — both licensed FIFA agents — joined @wright_one on the #PressPausePodcast to share their perspective on the rapidly changing college athletics environment, how they guide athletes through critical decisions, and what families need to know as the rules continue to shift.

🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅

#EpisodeLinkInBio #NCAATransferPortal #StudentAthletePathways #NIL CollegeSoccer Recruiting by @wright_one

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4 months ago

📍S/O to New York Times (@nytimes) bestselling author Clint Smith (@clintsmithiii), whose book How the Word Is Passed celebrated five years since its publication last week.
 📍I hope you don’t mind me taking advantage of that milestone to re-release our conversation from 2023, when you joined the #PressPausePodcast and we talked not only about your book, but also your youthful aspirations of becoming the next Thierry Henry (thierryhenry), and how your soccer journey led to a love of poetry and writing.
 📍Truly, our chat remains one of my favorites because it was just two guys — two soccer dads — chopping it up about life, fatherhood, and growth. Worth a re-listen, folks, if you’re headed out on a long drive or walk.

‼️Episode link in my bio‼️ 
Congrats on five years, Clint. Onward.

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚
 #ClintSmith #HowTheWordIsPassed #soccer #fatherhood storytellers by @wright_one

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4 months ago

📌📌America’s favorite @sportscenter anchor, @jayharrisespn (and @wright_one’s friend!), is celebrating 23🎉years at the Worldwide Leader—which gives us an easy excuse to run our “Press🎙️Pause” podcast episode back from a year ago. (It’s a fun listen!)

📌📌Jay continues to live up to the advice his grandmother gave him (“always be nice!”) while maintaining a relentless pursuit of excellence. “I don’t care if [your content] is going to social media, to Mars, or to cable TV—it doesn’t matter. My job is to be a journalist every single day, and to do everything journalistically.” 👏🏽💪🏽

Listen (again!)✅
Like (again!)✅
And, share (again!)✅

#PodcastLinkInBio #PressPausePodcast #JayHarris taken in Bristol, Connecticut by @wright_one

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8 months ago

📌Dr. Alison Thompson had never been to Jamaica prior to last October, when Hurricane Melissa made landfall and wreaked havoc on the island.

📌But when her New Wave Volunteers team arrived to provide relief and support, as luck would have it, she came across @wright_one’s contact information (posted on the website for the nonprofit Cataboo Basic School Enhancement Program) and cold-called him, quickly realizing a shared passion to help Jamaica. That’s the “One Love” spirit that has carried Jamaica since @thewailersofficial dropped that iconic tune in 1965.

📌Dr. Thompson was @wright_one’s guest on the #PressPausePodcast. On your next walk or drive, give it a listen—and spread the love. 🙏🏽🇯🇲💙

🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️

#PoscastLinkInBio #JamaicaStrong #CBSEP #SupportJamaica
� taken in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica by @wright_one

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8 months ago

🏀First, a shout-out to my friend and former editor, @cee_wild, who convinced me to leave #ESPNTheMagazine, a place I’d worked hard to land, for a chance to write more, edit more, grow more … to try new things … to be the kind of young sports journalist who could tell stories about athletes whose lives looked like ones I understood, and to write in a cadence and lingo I knew.

🏀Chris’s pitch didn’t include more money; he simply said I’d get to see my ideas come to life in real time. That was worth gold. So off to #TheSourceSports I went.

🏀My first assignment: Allen Iverson (@theofficialai3).

🏀I never would’ve landed a cover story — on AI?! — at @espn’s new glossy, certainly not at the height of his Iverson-ness.

🏀It was surreal sitting in Allen’s new house in the Philly suburbs, movers milling about while AI lounged in his bedroom — unpacked boxes of @Reebok kicks everywhere… he even offered me a pair (I declined). I was a fan, of course — I’d followed AI through Virginia and @georgetownhoops, when his crossover terrorized the Big East and John Thompson looked out for him.

🏀He was different and fully authentic, and I knew that going in. I owed it to myself — and to our audience — to show a side of him that wasn’t already out there.

🏀In his new memoir, #Misunderstood, and the three-part @primevideo docuseries “Allen Iv3rson,” you’ll hear him say the mainstream loved him — but not the whole of him. Not the way he spoke. Not the tattoos. Not the braids. Not his people.

🏀They loved the crossover and the marketability — not the pushback, the question to leadership: “Why should I do that just because it’s an expectation you have for yourself?”

🏀AI was far from perfect; he’ll tell you that. Yes, media has evolved since that Source piece hit shelves. But you’d be kidding yourself to think perceptions about folks like AI have evolved as much.

🏀AI was always HIM — on and off the court. An influencer before that was even a thing.

🏀For most of his career, mainstream painted him as someone to be feared. Funny that today, at 50, he’s finally celebrated for the person he’s always been.

🏀Imagine if that had been the narrative from the jump. by @wright_one

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a year ago