Louis Orr, 64, Dies; Syracuse Star, Knicks Forward and a Coach

Louis Orr, a star forward at Syracuse who in the 1980s played for the Knicks alongside Bernard King and Patrick Ewing, and who later became a college coach, including as Ewing’s assistant at Georgetown, died on Thursday. He was 64.

The cause was cancer, Orr’s family said in a statement released by Georgetown. The statement did not say where he died.

Orr shot over 50 percent for all four years of his college career. After serving as the sixth man as a freshman, he became a starter. In the 1979-80 season he enjoyed a breakout year as a senior, averaging 16 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. That year, the team won the Big East championship, and Orr was named Syracuse’s most valuable player and selected for the all-Big East first team.

Orr was drafted by the Pacers in 1980 and joined the Knicks in 1982. He found that his skinny physique was an issue in the N.B.A. “This Orr kid is about 6-foot-8, maybe 180, soaking wet,” Chuck Daly, a Philadelphia assistant coach, told The New York Times in a 1981 profile of Orr. Some people in basketball had taken to calling him Bones, which Orr did not appreciate, The Times reported.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/18/sports/louis-orr-dead.html