I caught up with K.J. Lawson at basketball practice yesterday, and if anyone had any thought he might return for his final year of eligibility in college basketball, forget about it. He's married and ready to move on with his life. Here is what he and Ron Hunter had to say about his year with the Green Wave.
Lawson is one of the more unique players I have covered. He is clearly mature, but he also is very guarded in what he says on most topics. I get the feeling he believes he has been burned by the media in the past.
Your are vegan. How did that come about?
"It's old, man. It's my lifestyle. I don't know. My dad put me on to it and it was just a change of diet, change of habit. I didn't see it on the Internet. I didn't watch it on Netflix. It was just something my dad told me and I just changed my whole way. I just went cold turkey."
Was that easy or hard for you to do?
"Once you want to live better, I just did it. It wasn't a hard thing for me."
Where do you eat out in New Orleans?
"I don't eat out. I cook a lot. New Orleans has a lot of great places to go to, but I only eat out occasionally because my meals are planned throughout the week."
Since you're married, how different is the college experience for you than your teammates?
"It's really not a college experience. We are very different but we have one thing in common--basketball. It's kind of distant as far as how I look at things, but it's a great school."
Coach Hunter says your professionalism has rubbed off on your teammates. How much have you noticed?
"I've kind of been working on that my whole career, trying to be professional, trying to do the right things, trying to walk in my integrity. It's a great feeling to even do that and do the things I need to do to let my life shine amongst the people."
When did you get married and where did you propose?
"July 14. I met my wife (Sydney) at Kansas. I proposed the day before her birthday."
Obviously you wanted to win more this year, but how would you grade how the year has gone for you and the team?
"I really can't put one on it. I just had to re-evaluate. There are certain things you wish could have happened, but I have no look-back. It is what it is. You want to win, but it takes a lot. I learned a lot self-examining myself and seeing that it takes a high level and a high stake to win at a high level and nothing that you want to do is easy. Going from place to place, I've learned that all is vanity and vexation of the spirit, so I just feel like a lot of things are vexed no matter where you go, so you just endure through it."
NOTE: His line comes from the King James Bible verse of Ecclesiastes: "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
You had won two games in a row and almost beat Tulsa at Tulsa for a third in a row. How do you feel you guys are playing right now?
"We are playing very free right now. Towards the end of the year a lot of guys have a lot at stake with us trying to go in and maybe get to .500 and just trying to give our best. I feel like we should have been playing a little bit looser early in the schedule. Now you are seeing what we could have been, you put the woulda, coulda, shoulda on it, but this is where we are and we're just going out there trying to compete every night and do it for each other and for the next people that want to come here and just build on something."
The Memphis game was emotional for you when you went back there. What do you expect from the return game, or is it just another game to you?
"I don't have any emotions. That's some stuff that had been burdened on me for about two or three years, but I don't have any emotions. It is what it is now. It's just another game. We'll go out there and play and try to get another W. That would be great to get a win over Memphis and maybe ruin their season, so that would be the great part about it. But it's just a game. We're going out there to play and compete and that's it."
You're not coming back to college ball next year. How do you envision your pro career?
"I don't envision it. I kind of envision it day for day. I try to sit down and envision what I'm going to do after this and try to rekindle some things, but I'm just day for day and focused on what's at hand. I'm just trying to get my second degree. Going pro I'll look at after the season but what I'm looking at now, I'm just trying to take care of my family and just do what's best for me."
How much did you have to change your game after your Achilles injury (which happened in his first year at Memphis in 2015-16)?
"I really didn't have to change my game. I feel like a lot of people wanted me to change my game and they played me in different positions throughout my career and that's why I feel like I was leaving multiple places because I felt like people didn't accept me as a player and they didn't coach me the right way to help me be the best I could be. Instead of trying to help me, they try to make you adapt to what they want you to be in their mind. I'm still a 2-3 player for anybody who wants to coach me, but I've always been a versatile player throughout my career, a top-50 player, small forward. It's always been there, and I've always had a problem with coaches trying to change it instead of coming to me and saying, OK, we want to play you at this but we think you should work on this and it coming down to where they are not talking at you but helping you advance your game to be seen."
How has your role been this year?
"I can't even say I've been doing what I want to do. I've just been trying to win. I've always been the scapegoat for a lot of teams trying to win. I get caught up into winning. I don't really care if my game gets off. As long as it gets off in the course of winning, I'm fine. I really don't care."
How much potential do you see for the guys coming back on this team?
"It's really hard to see because you don't have their whole team. You don't see the freshmen here so you don't know. They are going to be young, so they are going to have to fight through a lot of adversity and they are going to have to compete every night and hopefully guys have been watching how this has been going up and down and not just thinking it's easy."
Are you happy with how it's turned out for you here? You had other options.
"I'm content, brother. I can't really say if we'd been winning I'd be telling you a whole different story. I can't really say because I came into a thing and I could change it. I could have gone to another blue blood. I could have gone to Oregon to play with my younger brother (freshman Chandler Lawson, who is averaging 4.5 points for the Pac-12-leading Ducks), I could have, but I'm not looking at it like that. I came, and I evaluated the whole thing on education. I didn't do it off sports because I would have went back to Kansas. A lot of people think I got pushed out. No, I left on my own. (He averaged only 3.1 points but scored 13 in a first-round NCAA Tournament win). I left on the education. I could have come back and played for Coach (Bill) Self, but I didn't. I'm very close to that second degree (a Master's in liberal arts and sciences). It's at the end of this year, and I would have attained all my goals that I set out to get a degree and play professionally."
Lawson is one of the more unique players I have covered. He is clearly mature, but he also is very guarded in what he says on most topics. I get the feeling he believes he has been burned by the media in the past.
Your are vegan. How did that come about?
"It's old, man. It's my lifestyle. I don't know. My dad put me on to it and it was just a change of diet, change of habit. I didn't see it on the Internet. I didn't watch it on Netflix. It was just something my dad told me and I just changed my whole way. I just went cold turkey."
Was that easy or hard for you to do?
"Once you want to live better, I just did it. It wasn't a hard thing for me."
Where do you eat out in New Orleans?
"I don't eat out. I cook a lot. New Orleans has a lot of great places to go to, but I only eat out occasionally because my meals are planned throughout the week."
Since you're married, how different is the college experience for you than your teammates?
"It's really not a college experience. We are very different but we have one thing in common--basketball. It's kind of distant as far as how I look at things, but it's a great school."
Coach Hunter says your professionalism has rubbed off on your teammates. How much have you noticed?
"I've kind of been working on that my whole career, trying to be professional, trying to do the right things, trying to walk in my integrity. It's a great feeling to even do that and do the things I need to do to let my life shine amongst the people."
When did you get married and where did you propose?
"July 14. I met my wife (Sydney) at Kansas. I proposed the day before her birthday."
Obviously you wanted to win more this year, but how would you grade how the year has gone for you and the team?
"I really can't put one on it. I just had to re-evaluate. There are certain things you wish could have happened, but I have no look-back. It is what it is. You want to win, but it takes a lot. I learned a lot self-examining myself and seeing that it takes a high level and a high stake to win at a high level and nothing that you want to do is easy. Going from place to place, I've learned that all is vanity and vexation of the spirit, so I just feel like a lot of things are vexed no matter where you go, so you just endure through it."
NOTE: His line comes from the King James Bible verse of Ecclesiastes: "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
You had won two games in a row and almost beat Tulsa at Tulsa for a third in a row. How do you feel you guys are playing right now?
"We are playing very free right now. Towards the end of the year a lot of guys have a lot at stake with us trying to go in and maybe get to .500 and just trying to give our best. I feel like we should have been playing a little bit looser early in the schedule. Now you are seeing what we could have been, you put the woulda, coulda, shoulda on it, but this is where we are and we're just going out there trying to compete every night and do it for each other and for the next people that want to come here and just build on something."
The Memphis game was emotional for you when you went back there. What do you expect from the return game, or is it just another game to you?
"I don't have any emotions. That's some stuff that had been burdened on me for about two or three years, but I don't have any emotions. It is what it is now. It's just another game. We'll go out there and play and try to get another W. That would be great to get a win over Memphis and maybe ruin their season, so that would be the great part about it. But it's just a game. We're going out there to play and compete and that's it."
You're not coming back to college ball next year. How do you envision your pro career?
"I don't envision it. I kind of envision it day for day. I try to sit down and envision what I'm going to do after this and try to rekindle some things, but I'm just day for day and focused on what's at hand. I'm just trying to get my second degree. Going pro I'll look at after the season but what I'm looking at now, I'm just trying to take care of my family and just do what's best for me."
How much did you have to change your game after your Achilles injury (which happened in his first year at Memphis in 2015-16)?
"I really didn't have to change my game. I feel like a lot of people wanted me to change my game and they played me in different positions throughout my career and that's why I feel like I was leaving multiple places because I felt like people didn't accept me as a player and they didn't coach me the right way to help me be the best I could be. Instead of trying to help me, they try to make you adapt to what they want you to be in their mind. I'm still a 2-3 player for anybody who wants to coach me, but I've always been a versatile player throughout my career, a top-50 player, small forward. It's always been there, and I've always had a problem with coaches trying to change it instead of coming to me and saying, OK, we want to play you at this but we think you should work on this and it coming down to where they are not talking at you but helping you advance your game to be seen."
How has your role been this year?
"I can't even say I've been doing what I want to do. I've just been trying to win. I've always been the scapegoat for a lot of teams trying to win. I get caught up into winning. I don't really care if my game gets off. As long as it gets off in the course of winning, I'm fine. I really don't care."
How much potential do you see for the guys coming back on this team?
"It's really hard to see because you don't have their whole team. You don't see the freshmen here so you don't know. They are going to be young, so they are going to have to fight through a lot of adversity and they are going to have to compete every night and hopefully guys have been watching how this has been going up and down and not just thinking it's easy."
Are you happy with how it's turned out for you here? You had other options.
"I'm content, brother. I can't really say if we'd been winning I'd be telling you a whole different story. I can't really say because I came into a thing and I could change it. I could have gone to another blue blood. I could have gone to Oregon to play with my younger brother (freshman Chandler Lawson, who is averaging 4.5 points for the Pac-12-leading Ducks), I could have, but I'm not looking at it like that. I came, and I evaluated the whole thing on education. I didn't do it off sports because I would have went back to Kansas. A lot of people think I got pushed out. No, I left on my own. (He averaged only 3.1 points but scored 13 in a first-round NCAA Tournament win). I left on the education. I could have come back and played for Coach (Bill) Self, but I didn't. I'm very close to that second degree (a Master's in liberal arts and sciences). It's at the end of this year, and I would have attained all my goals that I set out to get a degree and play professionally."