Former SU men’s basketball star Lawrence Moten dies at 53
SU men’s basketball legend Lawrence Moten has died at 53, his daughter reported Tuesday. Moten is SU’s all-time leading scorer. Alexandra Moreo | Daily Orange File Photo
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Former Syracuse men’s basketball legend Lawrence Moten died on Tuesday, syracuse.com reported. Moten, who played with the Orange from 1991-95, is their program leader in points with 2,334 and had his No. 21 retired in 2018.
His daughter, Lawrencia, told syracuse.com he was found dead in his home Tuesday. Moten hailed from Washington, D.C. He attended Archbishop Carroll High School and spent one year at New Hampton School (New Hampshire) before joining SU in 1991.
Former SU basketball head coach Jim Boeheim called it a “sad day” to syracuse.com. He said Moten was always loyal to Syracuse and a steady presence on the court. Current head coach Adrian Autry, who played with Moten for three seasons, added that everyone on the team loved him for his positive attitude.
Across 121 career games with Syracuse, Moten averaged 19.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, while shooting 48.3% from the field. Moten didn’t have a single year where he scored fewer than 17 points per contest. He also scored double-digit points in all but three games in his SU career.
By the time his college career ended, he’d racked up four All-Big East Team honors as well as the 1991-92 Big East Rookie of the Year award.
Moten was selected in the second round of the 1995 NBA Draft and played parts of three seasons with the Vancouver Grizzlies and Washington Wizards. He couldn’t recreate the spark he had at SU, never averaging more than seven points per game. He continued to play overseas after his stint in the NBA.
After his career ended, he returned to Syracuse, mentoring local middle schoolers across central New York.
