It’s been 15 years since Ty Lawson helped Roy Williams and the UNC basketball program hang their fifth banner in Chapel Hill- and Lawson is still going strong.
After finishing his nine-year career in the NBA, the former ACC Player of the Year has been playing overseas in China, Greece, and most recently, in 2023, Venezuela. In the 2019-20 season with Fujian Xunxing in the Chinese Basketball League, Lawson averaged 27.3 points.
At 36 years old, Lawson is set to embark on his summer basketball journey with LA Ignite in The Basketball Tournament.
The Basketball Tournament, or TBT, is a 64-team single-elimination tournament that has run every summer since 2014. The teams feature a wide array of basketball talent from around the world, including former NCAA, NBA, and overseas players. The winning team of TBT will walk away with the grand prize of $1 million.
Some notable names from the 2023 tournament included former Syracuse guard Jimmy Boeheim and three-time All-Big Ten forward Robbie Hummel from Purdue. Over the past decade, a slew of memorable NBA players, including Jason Williams, Mike Bibby, and Jimmer Fredette, have appeared in the tournament.
Lawson will join forces with former UCONN standout Tarin Smith, who won the Atlantic-10 sixth man of the year in 2018, and LA Ignite Head Coach Vicken Eskidjian, who had an 18-year career as a professional FIBA basketball player.
The Basketball Tournament begins July 19, where Lawson and the Ignite will debut in the tournament’s regional portion in Houston, Texas at the University of Houston.