Duke hires Celts’ Lawson to lead women’s team
Duke has turned to Boston Celtics assistant coach and former WNBA All-Star Kara Lawson to lead its women’s basketball program.
The school announced the hiring in a social media post Saturday, a little more than a week after Joanne P. McCallie announced she wouldn’t return for a 14th season as she entered the final year of her contract. It is the first college head-coaching job for the 39-year-old Lawson, who played under Pat Summitt at Tennessee before a long WNBA career.
In a statement, Lawson called it “a dream come true” for someone who “wanted to be a coach since I was a kid.”
“Everybody I spoke with and had a chance to interact with, I immediately felt a great connection,” Lawson said. “It wasn’t a decision based on emotion, but there was a lot of emotion involved in it because of how excited I am and how ready I am to get started and to work with the players.”
Lawson appeared in three Final Fours at Tennessee and then played in the WNBA from 2003-15, winning the 2005 title with Sacramento. She also was part of the U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal in Beijing in 2008. She had also worked as a TV commentator for NBA and college basketball games before the Celtics hired her in June 2019.
Additionally, she has assisted USA Basketball efforts to prepare 3-on-3 teams for the Tokyo Olympics.
In statements, athletics director Kevin White called Lawson “the ideal fit” while university president Vincent Price said Lawson “has proven herself as a skilled coach and a committed mentor.”
Duke is the second ACC program this offseason to hire a woman working as an NBA assistant to be its head coach. Notre Dame hired Grizzlies assistant Niele Ivey — a former Fighting Irish player and assistant — to replace Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw in April.