The arrest report (pictured below) is sad. Sad to read … sad to look at … sad to even think about.
Report courtesy of Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post
About a quarter of the way through this last Nuggets season, you could tell Ty was disconnecting himself from the team and his situation. While Ty would speak to the media, you could see that the Nuggets situation and hell, maybe his OWN situation was weighing heavily on him. Gone were the smiles. Gone was the normally jovial Lawson that we saw every night
Make no mistake though, Ty Lawson’s issues are his own and they are very serious. If we are honest, they have followed him since his college days. A second DUI arrest in 6 months is the icing on the top of a very rancid cake. What we are left with is an extremely troubling situation with a human being. I’m left wondering “what if Ty got into an accident?” or even more troubling thoughts of “what if that accident injured another person or even killed them?”. It puts things into a perspective, as Nuggets fans, we don’t even want to think about.
Ty needs to get his life together and do it fast. The litany of incidents this year, beginning with the first DUI in February that not many Nuggets fans can excuse. There was the missed practice after the All Star break because he was in Las Vegas. Then he, seemingly with malicious intent, released the video of Brian Shaw rapping in the locker room. He said “I wish” to a fan asking him to go to the Dallas Mavericks. On draft night he had a friend record a video of him watching the draft and smoking a hooka, when the Nuggets selected Emmanuel Mudiay Ty Lawson proclaimed that he was now going to be traded to the Sacramento Kings. Now it’s bookended by a second DUI.
Troubling. Concerning. Infuriating. Perplexing. We are now at a crossroads with Ty with dead ends and no good options. Lawson has all but obliterated his trade value and has left the Nuggets holding the bag. It’s all the more frustrating for those of us who know and interact with Ty on a nightly basis. Those of us who know Ty on that level are even more saddened a frustrated by his actions. The demons that are haunting his life have now spilled over into his work and it’s left everyone stuck in purgatory.
No easy answers, no simple way out.
Facing a potentially long suspension, and trade value now sub zero the Nuggets are likely left with a $25 million rehabilitation project. One which they didn’t want to have or even want to wish upon themselves. Ty’s own actions, his troubling behavior and the Nuggets inability to trade him on Draft night have complicated a situation that seemed cut and dry. Either unload the player in JaVale McGee type deal where you pay a team to take him off your hands … or you take the long suspension and hope that Ty can rehab some of his reputation next season.
You feel for the person but his actions have been so damaging to multiple people you feel angry too. Angry at Ty for destroying a promising Nuggets career and in the process leaving the Nuggets with no options. Angry at Ty for taking away such positive feelings from Summer League and Mudiay. Angry at a shooting star who has seemingly dimmed to the point of invisibility.
I didn’t want to write this column … I’m angry at Ty for making me write it. My simple message is, please Ty, address your demons. For YOU and your family first and Nuggets fans/organization second. Do it before you go to far. Do it before something happens to you or someone else that you CAN’T overcome with an apology.
Do it now … before this black hole swallows you up.
