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 also says Lawson, while being booked into the Douglas County Jail, repeatedly directed racial insults at a police officer, calling the officer “b----” and “white b----,” according to the California Post, a West Coast sister publication of the New York Post.
Lawson is 38 and has been arrested multiple times since 2008, including several arrests for driving under the influence.
Before his off-court issues became part of his public record, Lawson built a decorated basketball résumé. He was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year while leading North Carolina to the NCAA championship in 2009, and he also won the Bob Cousy Award, given annually to the nation’s top point guard.
He entered the NBA with the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2009 draft and went on to average 12.7 points and 6.0 assists across eight seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers and Kings.
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 produced the first triple-double of his career, a 22-point, 12-assist, 11-rebound line in a 129-104 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Lawson 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 in a first-round series against the Toronto Raptors.