UPDATE[3:04 PM]: The N&O has uncovered at least three speeding violations for Lawson and also that he failed to appear in court for both of them.
State Division of Motor Vehicles records indicate that Lawson was convicted Sept. 14 of speeding 80 mph in a 65 mph zone in Granville County and Aug. 31 of speeding 70 mph in a 55 mph zone in Durham County. The records also indicate that he failed to appear in court on several occasions.
He also was charged with speeding 68 mph in a 45 mph zone in Wake County in May 2007 but failed to come to court, according to court records.
While all of these are basically minor traffic violations with the exception of the ones last night, it makes Lawson look grossly irresponsible to (1) get caught five times and (2) blow off related court appearances.
Hat tip: aerds84
UPDATE: According to the State of Maryland court records, Lawson was charged in Silver Spring, MD on May 12, 2008 for failing to produce his license at a traffic stop. He is due in court there on July 22nd. I guess this explains why his license was revoked.
–
Are you freaking kidding me? Can this offseason of UNC basketball get any stranger? It is starting(and I emphasize starting) to feel like the spring of 2003 again.
Ty Lawson was charged with DUI violating a noise ordinance and driving with a revoked license. The N&O is now saying Ty Lawson was not charged with DUI and most likely did not register a .08. According to a police spokesman Lawson would be charged with misdemeanors since he is under 21. The charges for the noise ordinace and driving with a revoked license still stand.] Why or when his license was revoked is anyone’s guess. Aside from that how freaking stupid can you be? I will never in a million years understand why people who are in the position Lawson is in go out and commit stupid acts like this one. Yes I know people his age make mistakes but when you have so much riding during these two months how could you even think of doing anything that would jeopardize your draft chances.
Speaking of those chances, I have no idea what this means going forward. Do NBA teams balk on this? It most certainly is a huge lapse in judgment and undoubtedly calls into question his level of commitment. On one hand it did not affect JJ Redick when the same thing happened to him. He canceled an individual workout with a few NBA teams due to a back problem but was busted for DUI around the same time.
How about Roy and UNC? How does this get handled if he decides to return? Does Roy do what Dean did with JR Reid or Jeff McInnis and prod him to the NBA now to remove the stigma?
This just opened a huge can of worms and questions, as if we did not have enough already. As far as I am concerned June 16th cannot get here quick enough so we know who is in and who is out.
Now if you will excuse me, I need a Tylenol.
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I’m not too happy about this development either. Sure, he made a mistake. But it’s a mistake that that many people have made before that has ended up killing others. It should always be a general assumption that any amount of drinking and driving should not be mixed.
I hate that Lawson and JJ Redick have this is common.
Great. Just great. The “driving on a revoked license” alone means jail time, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Wow. Maybe Ty should come back to school and grow up some. I didn’t even know he had a drivers license to begin with. I’m not familiar with what happened with JR Reid or Jeff Mcinnis THF.
Drunk driving on a revoked license pretty bad. If you recall, that is what got Paris Hilton thrown in jail.
TTP,
Well, Jeff McInnis was apparently having sex with Phil Ford’s wife. Reid was just in Dean’s doghouse. The rumor on the latter was that Dean talked with the Charlotte Hornets and got a guarantee they would take Reid 4th in the draft which they did.
My guess is that it won’t affect his status. If the pros think he can play and Denver thinks he’s a 20, they’ll still take him in my humble opinion. The only question still is whether a team thinks he can play; they’ll ignore this nuisance. Think of Jameson Curry who committed a felony senior year in high school, possession and distribution of drugs, and sure enough Oklahoma State came to his rescue because of his athletic abilitly. I think the same will happen to Lawson, we just don’t know if Denver or any other team has been planning to take him. I’ll bet he continues with the individual workouts as planned, and life goes on.
I did hear the Mcinnis rumor back then now that you mention it but thought there was no way it could be true. High five Jeff!(Just kidding). Do you think Ty’s parents might tell him there is no way your going to the NBA now, you need to be under Roy’s wing another year, just watching Spongebob and working on your game? How could Denver still draft him after this? Wow, what a development.
Not that this changes much of anything from our point of view, but the N&O reports that Lawson was charged with “driving after consuming alcohol,” and not DWI. That means he probably was under the .08 limit but was arrested for having any alcohol in his system while being under 21. Again, doesn’t make much of a difference anyway.
kpillai is right, and there is a big difference, IMO, between what this may be and DWI. The bigger question is, “Why was he driving on a suspended license?” If he lost it for previous, undisclosed, alcohol-related events, then this becomes a pattern to which both the NBA and UNC/Roy will certainly take notice.
I have corrected the post to include the new information. Such is life in the instant information age.
I have to say, if the Nuggets are the only one really wanting Lawson, this is NOT going to help him. Denver already had/has a problem with the Melo drinking story (with some people wanting him out because of it), not sure if another one coming in with a drinking “case” is going to be well accepted in the mile high city.
AEM
Our team seems to have turned into a reality show between this, Danny’s dad, and Tyler and Bobby jumping off balconies. I’ve almost forgotten that this group was playing bball games a few months ago.
In ole’ Roy’s terminology, one phrase describes it all…”Holy Frickin’ WOW!”
The Real World: Chapel Hill
Well, I believe that this could effect his standing in the draft. My question is why did he lose his license the first time? This might keep him at Carolina. This is definetly like a soap opera!!!!! Stayed tuned for more!!!!
Compared to the disaster the Real World has become, this wouldn’t even be consider Sesame Street!
It makes a huge difference that this is not a DUI. His blood alc % being below .08 means that he had 2 or less drinks. Yes, he’s underage, and should have known better. But, let’s cut the reactionary freakout, and see that for what it is. I agree that his driving on a suspended license is really stupid. It does indicate that he’s a little foolish. But - I was too at that age. I don’t think NBA teams will think much of it, unless it continues to happen or there are other character things that come to light.
He just needs to learn to handle stress better.
The associated press says he was charged with a DWI.
I checked CBS News and WITNTv.com
sammyc… the “reactionary freakout” is occurring because of three primary things - 1)The dude is trying to get a guaranteed contract with a top 20 pick in the draft, 2) the draft process is not in month, and it wasn’t a month ago… it’s NOW! (he had a workout Wednesday and has more in the coming days, not weeks), and 3) with all that has happened thus far with the Heels in the draft, this is just fuel for the fire. I think a little concern on our part is warranted, don’t you?
I think that the concern has to do more with the fact that it appears that he’s burning bridges at Carolina. We already know that he’s angry at us for criticizing him. He’s made comments that lead us to believe that there is not much holding him in Chapel Hill. Those comments, along with these actions, make it seem that he doesn’t care much about staying. So, I am concerned along those lines.
I still think we are overreacting at this point, though. I don’t think we are in a soap opera. I think this kind of thing goes with the territory. We are a major program, arguably the best in the country. We recruit the top talent. Guess what? They’re going to go pro when they can - shocker. Also, they are kids. Kids get in trouble. My point is not to reduce the troublesomness of Ty’s actions, only to keep it in context. He wasn’t drunk, by legal standards. He was underage, and had a suspended license. Unless there is a further pattern, it is not a major cause for concern.
The amazing thing about our program is that this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. Dean and now Roy have an amazing record of keeping kids on the right path. The reason I say Lawson is burning bridges is that he doesn’t seem to realize or care about the Carolina family right now. That does concern me.
This is from the Charlotte Observer’s website concerning previous traffic violations…
“State Division of Motor Vehicles records indicate that Lawson was convicted Sept. 14 of speeding 80 mph in a 65 mph zone in Granville County and Aug. 31 of speeding 70 mph in a 55 mph zone in Durham County. The records also indicate that he failed to appear in court on several occasions.”
Well, that answers me - there is a pattern.
The “thing” about Ty from Day One was that he was immature in his social development. Everybody, especially the coaching staff, knew this and he had his problems his first year with Roy because of that and the lack of work ethic that went with it. This is not a surprise to the people that really know him, albeit disappointing. I don’t think he is a bad kid but he has a lot of growing-up left to do.
Sure hope this is a wake-up call for him.
Awesome…in a sarcastic, not-like-’Sheed way.
I have given this some thought and I think that, best case scenerio, this muffles Ty’s NBA shot in that the pro scouts think he needs to grow up a bit, and he returns. The worst case scenerio, especially from a major program perspective, would be what happened to Maurice Clarett. I am not comparing Ty Lawson to Maurice personally, but by circumstance. Maurice was on the fence in terms of going pro, then declared, and…well. Ty has yet to hire an agent, but this situation certainly DOES NOT help.
I absolutely feel that this circumstance will lead Ty Lawson to return to Chapell Hill to right some wrongs. If he doesn’t spend another year at UNC to develop his character, he’s gonna spiral out of control in the NBA. Think about it. If you are an NBA exec, do you want to roll the dice on a kid who has been recently nailed for such violations (as those mentioned in the above posts), or allow for him to develop one more year in the storied North Carolina basketball program?
Think about them there apples.
“Dean and now Roy have an amazing record of keeping kids on the right path. The reason I say Lawson is burning bridges is that he doesn’t seem to realize or care about the Carolina family right now”.
It does seem that way because if he wasn’t, you wouldn’t have seen this kind of character. If he is going to continue this kind of behavior, I say encourage him to go, we will deal with life after him. Although only having 2 true poing guards (one of which could be injury prone, and the other unproven) scares me a little.
This is definitely quite a development, certainly for the worse. I really don’t know a whole lot about Ty’s background other than what I’ve read, although his driving record is less than stellar.
Gotta agree with THF about the horrible timing of this incident. Will this really keep Denver from choosing him? They don’t exactly have the most upstanding of citizens making up their team…might steer a couple other teams away, but if a guy fits what your looking for, can you look past an incident like this? I think most teams can…we’ve seen it happen before…
The other great point given by others is concerning discipline should Lawson come back to UNC…Is Roy obligated to sit him early in the season should he return? Does he encourage him to leave in an attempt to move past this whole event? All things I’m sure Roy wished he didn’t have to worry about…
My point of view on this whole thing is, Lawson is gone. I think that’s why he only played one game at the draft camp. I think there is some legitimacy to the Denver guarantee…no way to prove it, just seems like a reasonable fit, I would think Lawson should be an upgrade over Anthony Carter. This might be a stupid thought, but maybe Lawson was “celebrating his guarantee”…yes, he hasn’t signed with an agent and he hasn’t finished all his workouts, just a crazy thought. Either way, there is no doubt he made an extremely poor decision, hopefully he can regroup, learn from his mistakes and make the right choice for his future, whether at Carolina or in the NBA.
Isn’t it funny with all of this legal trouble, that his name is “LAW”son. It’s the LAW son!!
I think Roy should cut a deal with Ty: come back, and there will be no punishment for the underage drinking.
aerds84-
I think you may have said it best. I too wish him only the best and for him to walk away from this incident a better man. From a fan standpoint, Lawson probably gets the “excessive baggage” tag from the collective fan base. Alas, we all move on. I personally would like to see him mature some before becoming a professional, but all kids his age are prone to stupid mistakes. Does it excuse what he did? Absolutely NOT. Redick made a similar mistake, but the Dookies still worship him. I am worried that now, if he goes pro, he will then be turned loose and no one will be there to cut the wires of a ticking bomb. I don’t know that another year in Chapel Hill is the answer, but he may be considering now than before the incident. Unfortunately, a lot of the fans will need some convincing that he is gonna put forth a top notch effort night in and night out. On this blog we canonize the likes of Rasheed Wallace and Antawn Jamison for a reason. These guys knew that they were going pro, but they still brought it night in and night out. That is what the UNC basketball program is all about.
You are right DeanF. Fans such as MYSELF need some convincing of Lawson’s effort and character. If he is going to cause indifference with teammates due to his actions, I would rather him enter the draft. This seems like too much neglegence to me. I understand the whole “teenage” thing, as I am not that far removed from it myself (34) years old. But not showing up on court dates goes a little beyond “normal adolescence” in my opinion to border criminal. I am not fond of that kind of character (regardless of what success accepting someone like that may bring) and rewarding it with opportunity here at UNC.
I think these last couple posts have hit it. If he does come back, the team itself might resemble a reality show next year. Just think about the way this spring has been. Add a turbulent Lawson with Danny’s father, Danny and Roy’s little miscommunication, it could get really unpleasant for us.
A friend of mine is taking summer school in a class with Ginyard and Hansbrough and he witnessed an interesting reaction from Hansbrough when Ginyard told him the news. Let’s just say that the tone that Ginyard told him the news was not one that made it seem like Tyler and Ty are best friends (giving more fuel to the “Tyler stealing Ty’s thunder and Ty not liking it” idea).
I almost want to bury my head in the ground until October 17.
I think Roy should tell Lawson to go ahead and hire an agent. Roy or Dean should then call George Karl and make sure they take him at #20.
Who has not been there and done that? He’s young lets cut him some slack.
Many of us have been there and done that, but I think you could call it a little irresponsible given his current career status. That said, I wonder if the NBA even cares. Sometimes they seem like they care about their image, sometimes they just look the other way.
“Who has not been there and done that?”
I hear ya Keith. Many of us have made some bad decisions, especially at that age. But failure to appear in court on those mistakes is what separates him from us, IMO. Maybe we should tell him it will be OK with us if he speeds that fast on the court next year.
Re: Who has not been there and done that? He’s young lets cut him some slack.
Who has not had their license revoked and been caught driving without a license? Who has not been caught driving an automobile after comsuming alcohol when under 21 years old? Who has not had multiple driving violations by age 20?
I would venture the vast majority of all Tar Heel fans, even those who are far from being altar boys, have NOT been there and done that. There is no doubt Ty has not been conducting himself as he should as a representative of the Univerisity of North Carolina.
Jumping into a pool off a frat house balcony is one thing. Multiple driving violations, at least one of which involved alcholol is entirely a different thing which reflects badly on Ty, UNC and the UNC basketball program.
Yeah, I have never done anything close to what Lawson did aside from two warning tickets for speeding and one of those was a school zone. Of course I also do not drink and never had.