Lawson lands pro deal, talks time at South Carolina

As South Carolina’s season came to an end last year, AJ Lawson knew he had a big decision on his hands.

The way he did things the previous two summers—declaring for the NBA Draft before coming back to school—wasn’t an option with how the draft is set up; if he declared for a third time, his collegiate career was over.

Lawson ultimately declared, wanting to put trust in his work and track record at South Carolina, and it paid off in the wee hours Friday morning with Lawson inking a deal with the Miami Heat.

“I’m a hard worker. I feel like this year was a good year for me. Even with COVID and us not getting enough wins, I feel like I grew personally,” Lawson told GamecockCentral recently. “I feel like this year was the right time. I trusted myself. I believed in all the hard work I put in and felt like it was time.”

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The terms of the deal, which Adrian Wojnarowski reported this morning, are unknown but what it means is Lawson will officially get his shot to land on a NBA roster.

He becomes the fifth Gamecock to sign with a NBA team during Frank Martin’s tenure at South Carolina, joining the likes of Sindaiurs Thornwell, Chris Silva, PJ Dozier and—while he didn’t play a minute for South Carolina—Brian Bowen.

He’ll do it first with the Miami Heat, an organization with a recent history with South Carolina. Chris Silva played for two years there while Martin, who’s obviously from Miami, has long term ties to the franchise.

And it’s Martin who Lawson credits as one of the biggest reasons he has a shot at making the NBA now.

“I came as a 17 year old to college, straight from Canada to the states. They taught me how to be a man off the court: teaching me how to take care of my business, be on time, show my true character. On the court, I definitely got my defense better. I became a rebounder,” Lawson said.

“I rebound the ball well, and I showed it at the combine I can rebound the ball and I can defend. Then having coach Frank Martin on me every day to be the best me I can be, that’s what pushed me to go through different levels. He’s always there pushing me because he wants me to better than I was yesterday and be the best me I can be.”

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Lawson is only the fourth player at South Carolina over the last decade to play 2,000 career minutes, score 1,000 points while also having 300 rebounds and 150 assists in his career. The others are Thornwell, Maik Kotsar and Duane Notice.

After reclassifying up from the 2019 class and enrolling early at South Carolina, Lawson earned All-SEC Freshman team honors by averaging 13.4 points and 4.3 rebounds on 41.1 percent shooting.

His numbers stayed relatively the same in an up and down sophomore season but during the Gamecocks’ 2021 year Lawson was second team All-SEC with 16.6points and 3.1 rebounds per game while shooting 39.4 percent from the field.

“I never got to the tournament, and that’s what I wanted to do, but I feel like I had a solid three years there,” he said. “This year I was second team All-SEC and that’s where I hit that milestone, 1,000 points. I feel like it was a good year. I wanted to get some more wins to get to the tournament, but last year we didn’t have the chance because of COVID and we didn’t get enough wins. College basketball there’s a lot of ups and downs and we went out through a lot of phases. We got better mentally.”

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Lawson’s career at South Carolina is over, and now he’s laser focused on trying to chisel out a role professionally in the NBA like some of the Gamecocks who came before him, most notably PJ Dozier, who’s been in the league four years now and played in 50 games last season for the Nuggets.

When asked about his legacy at South Carolina, Lawson—the lanky quiet kid from Canada—paused and summed it up succinctly.

“I want to be known as the Canadian kid who came there and gave it his all and was a good person off the court,” he said.