Ty Lawson used the lockout wisely, expanding his horizons and trimming his waistline.
Having arrived back in the U.S. on Thursday evening from a fall stint playing for Zalgiris in Kaunas, Lithuania, Lawson was back in Verizon Center immediately on Friday morning to continue his preparation for the start of NBA training camps this week.
Down to 185 pounds for the first time since high school, the 5-foot-11 Lawson, already one of the fastest point guards in the NBA, exploded by 6-9 Pops Mensah-Bonsu and threw down a vicious dunk in one-on-one drills.
“I think I’ve got my bounce back,” Lawson said. “I’m jumping a lot higher, getting above the rim, so losing weight has done a lot for me, getting faster, ball handling, just being able to move better. I’m ready for training camp because I know [Denver Nuggets head coach] George Karl is going to try to run us hard and get us back in shape. I’ll be ready for it.”
Lawson wasn’t quite ready for what he found overseas, lashing out on Twitter as he adjusted to a system in which he played fewer minutes and a country where he couldn’t speak the language.
“It was weird playing 18 minutes, playing four minutes and then coming out and sitting for like 10 minutes, and then going back in,” Lawson said. “It was weird for me. I didn’t know how to react to it or how to express it. So people was arguing like, ‘You’re not playing like in the NBA,’ and I was like, ‘What you want me to do in 8 minutes? I can’t average 20 and 10 in 18 minutes.’ It just got a little out of hand, but that’s the immature side of me, and I learned from that.”
But after playing his final game last week before returning home, 24-year-old Clinton native said he already missed his old teammates and had a newfound appreciation of Lithuanian passion for the game.
“They have the most diehard fans,” Lawson said. “They love you when you’re winning, and when you lose, they still love you but just tell you what’s going on. That’s the only thing they have there. They don’t really play soccer there, it’s just straight basketball. The fans, they show a lot of love out there.”
Getting a taste of that passion was worth the challenge on the court and at meal times.
“Man, I had bubble guts the whole time I was over there,” Lawson said. “It’s definitely a different type of food and cuisine over there. I tried to stick to the chicken and steak, but I ventured out a couple of times, and it wasn’t a good look. They eat a lot more healthy over there. They like to eat things like that. Even McDonald’s is a lot healthier. It’s a lot fresh. I tweeted, it was like [Miami steakhouse] Prime 112. It was the best meal over there. I was always at McDonald’s drive thru.”
Once he gets to Denver, Lawson will likely add the role of recruiter to his job title as the Nuggets try to coax free agent center Nene back to Denver, and other players as they fill out a roster depleted by notable departures of Kenyon Martin, J.R. Smith and Wilson Chandler, all three of whom remain stuck in China until March.
“It depends what they looking for, but once they give me the go-ahead, I’m definitely going to blow people’s phones up,” Lawson said, “because I’m trying to win this year, trying to get back to the playoffs.”
