Trevor Lawrence playing basketball? Here’s what Dabo said about intramural hoops
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence made several plays during the 2018 football season that made national headlines. Now the freshman is going viral for what happened in another sport.
A video was posted to social media on Monday showing Lawrence shoving an opposing player to the ground during an intramural basketball game. The player set a pick on Lawrence, and the Georgia native took exception. The video, which was posted on Twitter by Clemson Barstool, had more than 1.3 million views as of Wednesday morning.
Several national outlets turned the video into a story, and some ESPN shows discussed Lawrence’s shove, as well as Dabo Swinney’s decision to allow players to play intramural basketball.
Swinney explained his reasoning during a news conference earlier this month after announcing that Tigers defensive tackle Jordan Williams is out for the spring with a leg injury he suffered while playing basketball.
“Hey, it is what it is, you know. These guys need to be kids, too,” Swinney said. “They’re just having fun and enjoying being college people and doing what college kids do.”
Swinney added that intramural basketball is a huge deal right now for the football team with veteran players recruiting newcomers to join them.
There are several different teams, but one in particular with Justyn Ross, Tee Higgins, Diondre Overton and others stands out.
“These recruits, nobody really cares what they can do on the football field. What they really care about, what they’re really excited about, is who they’re going to put on their intramural basketball team,” Swinney said. “It’s a lot of fun to see that group. ... But it’s a big deal around here. It’s a big deal.”
Swinney went to Fike Recreation Center, where the games are played, to watch some of his players play basketball a few weeks back.
His son, Will Swinney, plays on a team in a lesser division, and Lawrence and K’Von Wallace play on a team in a division a step above that. After those games were done the team featuring Higgins, Ross and others took the court, playing in the highest division.
“And then the show shows up. Here comes all these guys walking in. They’ve got their orange warm-ups on and they’re strutting in to Fike over there. I look and I’m like, ‘OK, now we’ve got something,’ ” Swinney said. “It was unbelievable. And they’re playing some little fraternity team that should be in the D2 league, but they’re in the big boy league.”
Swinney has not yet addressed the Lawrence video.
Lawrence took some heat for the shove on social media. He responded on Instagram, stating that, “He wanted to talk the whole game lol ... still probably unnecessary. Sorry folks #ROYteam.”
