Former Sacramento Kings guard Ty Lawson was arrested July 16 after allegedly stealing a $34 bottle of Tito’s vodka from a liquor store in Castle Rock, Colorado, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by FOX31 in Denver.
The report says Lawson, 38, then used racial insults toward police while being booked into the Douglas County Jail. The California Post, a West Coast sister publication of the New York Post, reported that Lawson repeatedly called a police officer “b----” and “white b----.”
Lawson has been arrested multiple times going back to 2008, including several DUI arrests.
Before his off-court troubles, Lawson built a strong basketball résumé. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year while helping North Carolina win the NCAA championship in 2009, and he also took home the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard.
He entered the NBA as the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2009 draft and played eight seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers and Kings. Over that span, he averaged 12.7 points and 6.0 assists.
Lawson spent his first six NBA seasons in Denver, then played for Houston and Indiana in 2015-16 before joining Sacramento in August 2016. He appeared in 69 games for the Kings in 2016-17, making 25 starts and averaging 9.9 points and 4.8 assists in 25.1 minutes per game.
His final regular-season NBA game was a memorable one: Lawson recorded the first triple-double of his career with 22 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in a 129-104 win over the Phoenix Suns.
He later signed with the Washington Wizards for the 2018 NBA playoffs, where he averaged 5.8 points and 3.0 assists in 19.2 minutes per game during a first-round series against the Toronto Raptors.
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