‘Poetry in Moten’: DC native, college basketball legend Lawrence Moten dead at 53

WASHINGTON — Lawrence Moten – an Archbishop Carroll High School basketball great who became Syracuse University’s all-time leading scorer ─ has died at 53.

Moten – who earned the nickname “Poetry in Moten” while playing for the Orange – was a second-round draft pick by the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995 before going to the Washington Wizards. He would play only eight teams for his hometown NBA team in 1998.

A Syracuse athletic department spokesperson said Tuesday that multiple staff members learned of Moten’s death from various contacts and that Moten was at home in Washington, D.C., when he died. A cause of death was not immediately clear.

Moten scored 2,334 points for SU and also set a Big East Conference record with 1,405.

At Archbishop Carroll High School, Moten was named All-Metropol