Donald Lawson is a 27 year old 208cm center from Chicago that completed his sixth professional season in Germany and second with SC Rasta Vechta. He played with BV Chemnitz from 2010-2014 playing a total of 118 Pro A games and two seasons ago played 30 games: 9.7ppg, Reb-2(9.4rpg), 1.4apg, 1.3spg, Blocks-5(1.3bpg), FGP: 47.0%, FT: 56.5%. Last season for SC Rasta Vechta he played 35 games averaging 2.6ppg, 4.4rpgHe started his basketball career at W.Michigan (NCAA) from 2006-2010 playing a total of 115 NCAA games. He spoke to German Hoops after the season ended.

Thanks Donald for talking to German Hoops. Congrats on moving up to the Beko BBL. Does the fact that the team move up lessen the hurt a bit of not winning the title?

Our goal was to win the title. We had a great season, but we want to finish on top. I’m sure it will be a dog fight between us and Jena.

SC Rasta Vechta and Science City Jena split the regular season series 1-1 and no game was decided by more than five points. However in game one SC Rasta Vechta was creamed 80-54. How could a devastating loss like that happen in a playoff final game?

 Jena executed their game plan perfectly. They moved the ball well and buried us early. It was hard to slow them down once they got going.

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Donald Lawson is a 26 year old 208cm center from Chicago that will play his fifth professional season in Germany and first with SC Rasta Vechta. He played with BV Chemnitz from 2010-2014 playing a total of 118 Pro A games and last season played 30 games: 9.7ppg, Reb-2(9.4rpg), 1.4apg, 1.3spg, Blocks-5(1.3bpg), FGP: 47.0%, FT: 56.5%. He started his basketball career at W.Michigan (NCAA) from 2006-2010 playing a total of 115 NCAA games. He recently spoke to German Hoops about basketball before he came to Germany to start the 2014-2015 season.

BV Chemnitz finished last season in 11th place with a record of 15-15. What were the main reasons for the club not being a playoff team?

Consistency and slow starts. As a team we played well at times, but we also had stretches where we didn’t play well on the offensive or defensive end as a unit. We also struggled to get a rhythm at the start of the second half.

It seems as if the competition level has risen in the German pro A in the last years. Is the talent level of Americans/Germans been increasing?

The talent level had always been good and it continues to get better. The German talents are developing quite well and teams are doing a good job of recruiting players to fit their system/style of play.

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