Orr Academy, located between West Garfield Park and Humboldt Park, has been seemingly ubiquitous recently. In February, “Shot in the Dark,” a documentary film about the high school’s basketball team, produced by Chance the Rapper and Dwayne Wade, debuted on Fox — right as the gun control debate was heating up.
Then, Orr beat Winnebago 76-49 to take the Class 2A state championship on March 10 in Peoria — the second consecutive championship for the West Side school.
And more recently, on March 24, the Triton College men’s basketball program captured their national championship against Pima College in Arizona. Isaiah Hayes, a guard on that historic team, is an Orr graduate.
In this second edition of ‘Street Wise,’ former Orr star player Tyquone Greer’s words in “Shot in the Dark’s” closing moments are echoed by Chicago Magazine in its February issue.
Greer, who accepted a basketball scholarship from Daytona State before transferring to Hofstra and Ferris State, “walks along a beach in Daytona, reflecting on his life.”
“‘I like playing basketball,’ he says, then starts to add that he doesn’t love it. But he stops himself. ‘I love it because it’s going to give me a free education. I know what basketball can do for me and my family, so I do it.'”
Michael Romain
