Lawson a gamer at heart

LAS VEGAS — Kara Lawson couldn’t have been too crushed by the quarterfinal loss of the Celtics’ summer league entry, certainly not as much as she was affected by earlier hoop defeats in her life.

After more than a week of searing heat and general inyour-face-ness of Vegas, most in the team’s traveling party were smiling as they contemplated flights out of town Saturday afternoon.

But while these affairs may pale in comparison to those that will come in October and beyond, the basic nature of the exercise – the lit scoreboard above center court, having skin in the game, the win and the loss – is what brought Kara Lawson back to coaching and an assistant’s job with the Celts from her work as a television analyst.

An Olympic Gold Medal

ist, twice an NCAA Finalist with Tennessee and a 13year WNBA star, she carries within her the competitive nature that largely defines the greatest players.

“I don’t think that ever leaves you,” Lawson told the Herald. “If you’ve played at the highest level and certainly as long as I did, 13 years, I mean, it’s very much been a part of the fabric of my life since I was 8 years old, in terms of the competition. So it definitely was a factor in me deciding to come.

“I think what kind of jump-started that for me was coaching USA Basketball. Once I stopped playing and took some time off and a break from the competition and started to feel like I wanted it back in my life a little bit, I got involved with coaching high school kids in the summers and started to get that feeling of great euphoria when you win and then obviously frustration and thoughts of what you could do better when you lose. That kind of awakened or reawakened that in me.”

It wasn’t hard to find. It had been there in Lawson from an earlier age.

“That’s something that my parents encouraged, competitiveness – obviously not to the point of being a poor sport or embarrassing myself or my team or my coach or my family, but, yeah, I used to cry after every loss when I was a kid,” she said. “I was upset. Even in high school. I mean, we only lost twice in three years, but I cried after both losses. It’s always meant something to me. Competition’s always meant something for me, an opportunity to prove something, an opportunity to see where you stack up against the opponent.”

Though Lawson no longer gets to run on the floor and put her 39 percent WNBA career 3-point percentage to the test, coaching still presents the opportunity to impact winning. She regularly spent post-practice time here going over video with Carsen Edwards, the second round draft pick who went on to light up the league.

“It’s a great responsibility to be a coach, to impact a young person’s life and have a chance to hopefully be a positive force in their life,” Lawson said. “It’s something I take very seriously. Players I’ve had a chance to coach have been really transparent with me, really open with me about things that they struggle with, about anxious feelings they have. And I’m just getting to know these guys here, but all that stuff is real.

“All that stuff happens with players all the time. I played and I felt some of those things, as well. There’s a lot of pressure to perform at a high level when you’re playing at the professional level. So, yeah, I think that there’s an opportunity to impact in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s watching film. Sometimes it’s motivational. Sometimes it’s a kick in the butt. Sometimes it’s a hug. That’s just reading the relationship you have with the player and also reading their particular mood or body language that day, and those are things that you have to take into account. As you know guys more and more, you’ll be able to figure that out.”

As for whether being female may increase the possibility that players could be more open about their feelings, Lawson said, “Yeah, I don’t know. You’d have to ask them. Listen, I don’t think there’s any question that they’re aware that I’m a woman, OK? I don’t think there’s any question that sometimes they might say something to me in a different way because I’m a woman. And that doesn’t bother me.

“When you’re building a relationship, you have to be willing to accept the other person for who they are and be open to learning about them. Then hopefully it’s reciprocated. Hopefully they’re open to learn about you.”

What the Celtic players will learn is that the new assistant coach left a nice TV job with the Wizards because she’s a gamer at heart.