Brothers bonding: Dedric Lawson and sibling Chandler combine forces on KU’s TBT team
Former Arkansas Razorbacks forward Chandler Lawson, who at 23 is three years younger than his brother, Dedric, before this week had never competed on the same team as the first-team All-Big 12 player and third-team AP All-American out of the University of Kansas.
Suffice it to say Chandler, who started next to Dedric for the KU alumni team in Wednesday night’s TBT exhibition game against Kansas State, is savoring every minute of the duo’s bonding experience.
“It’s a blessing and dream come true to play with my brother. It’s so much fun. He is very smooth, inside and out. He can do everything,” Chandler Lawson said after a TBT practice on Thursday afternoon at “The Good Game” training facility in Lawrence.
The Lawson brothers on Thursday were joined at practice by fellow Mass Street TBT teammates Frank Mason III, Jamari Traylor, Lagerald Vick, Sam Cunliffe, Billy Preston, Kevin Young and Travis Washington (Utah State). They will meet a Colorado State alumni team at 7 p.m. Saturday at Koch Arena in Wichita in the 64-team, single-elimination TBT opener.
“I’ve always been a Jayhawk fan since I was little. Even when they played Memphis in the (2008) championship, I was a fan. This is very fun, exciting,” Chandler, a 6-foot-8, 205-pound Memphis native added.
Chandler did play high school ball in Memphis with brother, Johnathan, who is a junior-to-be at Arkansas-Little Rock. A fourth Lawson brother, KJ, 28, played one year at KU with Dedric in 2018-19. He’s currently a high school hoops coach in Memphis.
Dedric, who won MVP honors of the Korean Basketball League during the 2023-24 season, was a factor in getting Chandler invited to play on KU’s TBT entry. Dedric spoke with team general manager Tyshawn Taylor in May after Memphis native Vick told Chandler he should consider joining the KU squad.
“I hit up Tyshawn and said, ‘Are we good on players?’ Ty said, ‘Who do you have in mind?” Dedric Lawson told The Star on Thursday. “I said, ‘My little brother if you don’t mind.’ Tyshawn made it happen and everybody’s been working him in.”
Dedric said it’s maybe a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have his brother on his team.
“We’ve only played pickup at home, things like that,” Dedric said. “Coming here right now really means something. Trying to make some money and playing with these guys is exciting. I am hoping we can do some big things in the TBT.”
Dedric says his brother, one of two players on the Mass Street team who didn’t play at KU, is trying his best to fit in during early workouts.
“When he gets comfortable, I think he’ll be great,” Dedric said of Chandler, who averaged 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds a game as a starter at Arkansas last season.
“Once he goes out there and just plays he’s going to help the team so much. He gives us something we didn’t know we had,” he added of the versatile guard/forward who also played at Oregon and Memphis before finishing at Arkansas.
Mass Street coach Sherron Collins said Dedric Lawson, who averaged 21.8 points and 9.8 rebounds a game last season for DB Promy in South Korea (he had a season-high 47 points in a game), is an important piece of the KU alumni team.
“We don’t want to put him in a box because of his versatility,” Collins said of the 6-9, 235-pound Lawson. “We’ll put him on the block where he has a lot of options of pick and popping and rolling, handling the ball, because he can do it all.”
Collins, the second-year head coach at Oak Park High, said Chandler Lawson has been “doing well. I think it’s rough for a couple of new guys who didn’t go to KU who are playing for us because they want to do well. We tell them (Chandler and Utah State grad Washington), ‘Don’t come and be passive because you didn’t play here. We want to win, so we need you do what you do.’ He’s doing fine. He’s just a quiet guy out there.”
Dedric Lawson his senior year (2018-19) led the Big 12 in both scoring (19.4 ppg) and rebounding (10.3 rpg). However he lost out to Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver in 2019 Big 12 Player of the Year voting.
Following Kansas’ loss in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, Lawson entered the NBA Draft. He was not selected and played in the G League in 2019-20. He played for the Goyang Orions in the Korean League in 2020-21, then played with Besiktas in the Turkish Super League in 2021-22. He moved back to the KBL in 2022-23.
He said he’ll likely play in either China or Japan in 2024-25. Chandler also plans on playing pro ball overseas.
“South Korea … it was cool. I won MVP,” said Lawson, who was a teammate of former KU center Jeff Withey last season. “Big Cliff (Alexander, former KU center) was there one year. We were No. 1 but ended up losing in the championship.
“Right now I play the 4. I don’t want to play the 3. You get that mismatch at the 4 and 5, get to post up smaller guys. I shoot a lot of 3s now,” added Lawson. He hit 133 of 378 for 35.2% in Korea last season.
“The way the game has evolved, big guys shoot a lot of 3s,” he noted.
Dedric and Chandler share the same thoughts about KU’s upcoming game or games in the TBT.
“We’re going to have fun and bring home a trophy,” Chandler said.
Dedric noted: “We are going to focus on ourselves, play the way we play, have fun and enjoy playing with guys I didn’t play with like Frank. Everyone knows guys like Frank Mason, Lagerald Vick. I didn’t get to play with Billy (Preston) his freshman year. Once we get the chemistry factor together it’ll be a different ballgame for us.”
