By now everyone has heard that longtime Denver Nugget, point guard Ty Lawson was traded to the Houston Rockets just a few days ago. This comes on the heels of his second DUI arrest this year. The 6-year NBA veteran has been a consistent contributor for the Nuggets during his career but now his off the court troubles are coming to the public spotlight. In a recent interview with Yahoo! Sports, Nuggets President Josh Kroenke shared an interesting perspective on Lawson, claiming that he has struggled with alcohol abuse, even showing up to practice reeking of booze.
There were times when he was better than others. But the problems have been there for several years, going back to when we were having a lot of on-court success. I don’t want to go back too far. There were just a lot of times where you were at practice and you just know. You could smell it.
Though the team was fully aware of his struggles, they made attempts to work with him through the process. But all of it came to ahead when he was arrested on his 2nd DUI in less than 6 months. That is when the team decided to part ways with him.
I love Ty and will always love Ty, but once I saw him going down this dark path, we knew that we probably were going to end up in a situation where we were dumping him. It creates a weird dynamic.
Lawson was dealt to Houston in exchange for Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson, Kostas Papanikolaou and a future first-round pick. Houston’s John Lucas, who specializes in helping players with personal off-the-court issues will be aiding Lawson in his efforts to get back on the straight and narrow.
Substance abuse and a millions in the bank are a bad mix. – Rocko Rathon (@Rocko_CNK)
