Life cut short before Newark basketball legend had chance to give back – NJ.com

Derrick Butler doesn’t pretend to know how things would have turned out for Keon Lawrence had he never left Missouri.

The Newark Weequahic boys basketball coach also can’t say for sure whether Lawrence was negatively influenced by a new cast of decision-makers and hangers on when he transferred from Mizzou to Seton Hall University, or just revisited by some of the same old demons the youngster tried to leave behind in 2006.

What Butler does know with unflinching certainty is this:

“Keon was a good kid, and I want everyone to know that,” said Lawrence’s former coach at Weequahic. “And Keon would have made a great basketball coach one day. I’m sure of that. He had a lot to give, and I was in the process of trying to make that happen for him.”

It was just about three weeks ago when Butler approached one of the greatest guards New Jersey has produced in the last three decades and asked if he was interested in giving coaching a try. Butler told Lawrence he would begin to gather the necessary paperwork he would need to apply as a substitute teacher and assistant basketball coach.

“Keon was realizing that the window on his playing career was closing, but this might be another door that was opening up for him,” Butler said. “He was responsive to the idea. I believe Keon got to the point where he wanted to give what he had to someone else.”

Butler won’t have his former star alongside him at sidecourt this or any othe season, and those young Weequahic players will never get to learn first-hand from someone who once set the Brick City ablaze with his Indy car speed dribble, deadly pull-up jumper, ankle-snapping crossover, gravity defying dunks and, of course, his engaging personality.

Lawrence died last Friday evening in Beth Israel Hospital at the age of 32 from complications that arose from what was described as a virus. Butler said Lawrence felt ill last Tuesday, was hospitalized on Wednesday but in stable condition by that evening. He was on life support on Thursday after an unexpected turn for the worse, and gone the next evening after life support was discontinued.

There were no definitive viewing or burial plans yet for Lawrence, though Weequahic athletic director Gary Westberry was trying to have a viewing and service arranged for Weequahic’s Ronald Stone Gymnasium later this week.

“It’s sad to see a young person die suddenly like that, but at the same time, Keon really lived a great life in terms of accomplishing some of the things that he wanted,” said Westberry, who held the AD position when Lawrence starred for the Indians from the fall of 2002 to winter of ’06.

In that senior season of 2005-06, the 6-2 Lawrence led Weequahic to a 24-3 record and was selected First Team All-State by The Star-Ledger along with Da’Sean Butler of Bloomield Tech, Brian Zoubek of Haddonfield, Corey Fisher of St. Patrick and Dan Werner of Christian Brothers. The electrifying Lawrence averaged 31.2 points, 6.7 assists and 8.7 rebounds in that senior year, and became just the third player all-time in Essex County to surpass 2,000 points.

in the winter of 2018, Lawrence was honored by NJ.com as the 26th best guard to play scholastically in New Jersey over the past 30 years.

Lawrence’s Weequahic teams were 77-23 in his four seasons, though never won a state or sectional championship, Essex County crown, or even a Newark Holiday Tournament title. Neon Keon was a crowd-pleasing show-stopper over at George Washington Carver Middle Schools (the Indians’ former home court), but East Side, Science Park, Shabazz, University, and even Central in Lawrence’s senior year were Newark’s powerhouse teams of that era.

“In Keon’s time we really didn’t have the talent around him, but he still had such a profound effect on the history of Weequahic basketball,” Westberry said.

“The old stars from some of the great Weequahic teams knew who he was and what he was doing,” he said. “Mo Layton from that incredible ’66-67 team knew of him. Even the great Al Attles (Golden State Warriors fame) knew who Keon was. That alone to me was such an amazing accomplishment. Those guys are still big names on our community, and so is Keon.

“Those other teams in Newark had more B-plus players than Weequahic did,” Westberry said. “Keon was an A-plus player, but without those B-plus players around you for support, you can’t really do anything. Not even LeBron James could until he had B-plus players around him.”

And whether or not Westberry’s assessment is accurate, Lawrence conducted himself on the floor as if every last one of his teammates was as comparably skilled as he was.

Lawrence would get a pass from point guard Maurice Coleman, then drive into the lane and look for forward Marcus Moore or center Kevin Washington on the opposite block if Lawrence was drawing a help-side defender. And practically the only time Lawrence would not have attracted the double team would be if that second defender somehow got conked on the head by a falling brick and was rendered unconscious during the sequence.

“I always tried to bring a lot of leadership, assists and good defense,” Lawrence told The Star-Ledger during his senior season at Weequahic. “I already knew what I could give scoring-wise. I wanted to give the little stuff.”

It was probably a combination of Lawrence’s prodigious athletic ability along with this willingness to tend to more nuanced matters that caught the attention of Missouri head coach Mel Watkins and assistant Quin Snyder during Lawrence’s senior year. Those two were no longer there when Lawrence arrived in Columbia that following summer (Mike Anderson had become head coach), but Lawrence gave all – and perhaps even more – than what was expected of him.

He averaged 9.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists as a freshman at Mizzou, and then 11.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists as a sophomore. Excitement was high among Tiger fans over both the team’s prospects for the next year or two with the help of Lawrence, and also over his prospects as an professional.

But then seemingly out of nowhere, Lawrence transferred to Seton Hall University, under head coach Bobby Gonzalez. Lawrence had wanted to be closer to family and friends, though probably not the trouble that awaited his return home.

After sitting out the 2008-09 season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules, Lawrence was arrested for causing a wrong-way accident on the Garden State Parkway that seriously injured another driver. He was suspended from school that fall semester.

After a checkered playing career for the Pirates over the next two seasons, Lawrence was dismissed from the team in 2011 for “violation of team rules and an ongoing pattern of conduct unbecoming of a representative of Seton Hall athletics,” as reported then by Brendan Prunty of The Star-Ledger.

“For whatever reason, Keon came back from Missouri. I didn’t tell him not to because it wasn’t my place, and he had his reasons,” Butler said. “I just told him to do his own homework before he made the move and not rely on other people to do it for him. Maybe coming home to Newark wasn’t the best thing for him at the time, and I didn’t think Seton Hall with Bobby Gonzalez was the best fit for Keon.

“He was a good kid, but he made a U-turn, and that isn’t always a good thing,” Butler said. “You’re away from some people who aren’t looking out for what’s best for you, then you make that U-turn and you’re right back with them.”

Like Butler, Westberry has always viewed Lawrence’s departure from Missouri with an air of skepticism, but also without judgement. Lawrence was a 20-year old man, after all, not a child.

“It’s something I’ve struggled with,” he said. “I don’t know if Keon stayed in Missouri if that would have made things any better. I know sometimes when you’re far away from where the root of your problems are, you can get along much better. At least you have the opportunity.”

Lawrence went undrafted by the NBA in 2011, but eventually signed a professional contract with the Tromso Storm of Norway-BLNO, that country’s premier men’s basketball league. He played with them over four largely successful seasons right up through 2018-19.

It is Butler’s presumption that Lawrence left the Norway league because he was being told there could be a more lucrative opportunity for him in Italy. That did not materialize, and Lawrence was back in Newark, with his girlfriend and a six-year old son.

Lawrence had started a new job with UPS only two weeks ago or so, around the same time he and Butler spoke about his future as a coach.

“Keon was a good father and he wanted to do what was right for his son and his family. He loved his family. He loved his mother (Darlene Epps), loved his brother and his sister. He was a good father, a good son, a good brother.”

And Butler was sure that, one day, Lawrence would also be a good coach.

“I wanted to pass the torch, and I think Keon wanted it. It was time,” Butler said. “What better legacy would there be than for him to give back to others?”

In all probability, Lawrence would have attacked a coaching position with the same zeal with which he advanced the basketball or prepared for an upcoming game. Again these were his words in 2006:

“I’m going to play hard no matter what. I don’t take anybody lightly and I work as hard as I can any time I play. I know it’s all going to pay off sometime. Maybe not that time, but sometime.”

Mike Kinney may be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter @MikeKinneyHS.