The anointing of Kara Lawson, from Duke’s March Madness success to Team USA coach
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On this Tuesday morning in September, she’s sitting on a row of chairs, interacting with a guest at a spirited Duke women’s basketball practice. She’s talking. Her hands accentuate her words. But her eyes remain affixed on the court. Piercing. Processing. Hospitality can’t break her focus.
“It’s uncanny,” Duke assistant coach Karen Lange said, “how she can talk to you and still see everything that’s going on.”
Suddenly, Lawson bounces out of her seat. She saw something. Center Arianna Roberson hedged too tentatively in pick-and-roll defense. In the chaos of cuts and drives, of yells and motion, Lawson spotted the hesitance.
“Your hedge has got to be big,” Lawson shouts from the middle of the suddenly still court, “and it’s gotta be bold. That’s going to give her the space to come underneath. But you’re coming out just like this: ‘Peekaboo.’ And that peekaboo ain’t doing s—.”
She walks back to her seat. Continues her conversation. But those eyes remain on the action. They carry the intensity of a player who earned every minute on the floor. Who thirsted for the big shot. Who scoured every centimeter for an advantage. Those eyes illustrate Lawson’s intensity, reveal her focus.
They were the same in college at the University of Tennessee. For 13 seasons in the WNBA, which included a 2005 championship with the Sacramento Monarchs. In Boston as an assistant coach with the Celtics.
They’re the same eyes here, perched atop Duke women’s basketball, overseeing the program’s push to regain championship relevance, as they enter Friday two wins from the Final Four.
Back at this practice, Lawson predicted struggle. She knew this team needed time. In 2025, Duke barely missed a trip to the Final Four after losing a close one to South Carolina. Then the Blue Devils lost two key players in Reigan Richardson and Oluchi Okananwa, and had to fill the holes with young players. Most importantly, they now had to contend with expectations. The smoke came from Lawson.
Duke opened the season 3-6. Four of those losses came to ranked opponents, including three straight to No. 2 South Carolina, No. 3 UCLA and No. 5 LSU. The Blue Devils got handled in all three.
In the end, Duke won its second consecutive ACC tournament crown. The Blue Devils found an ideal time to peak.
And then Lawson went to Puerto Rico.
The FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament required her to shift her attention to her second job, which carries even more significance. She begins her reign as head coach of USA women’s basketball at a time when the game’s growth threatens America’s long-unchallenged supremacy.
The threat wasn’t visible in Puerto Rico. The USA women trounced all five opponents. But as with her other team, this roster faces the task of grooming a new team featuring young talent in the furnace of expectations. Urgency pursues Lawson from both sides.
One look at her, in the throes of coaching, and it’s clear she lives for this. Urgency isn’t new to Lawson. She built her name on stakes that don’t wait for comfort.
“You always knew from the look in her eyes,” U.S. women’s team managing director Sue Bird said, “she was going for the jugular.”
Lawson’s hiring is an anointing. Her basketball career, her disposition, her life, pointed toward this as if it were inevitable. At 44, Lawson became the youngest coach to take over the U.S. women’s national team since Anne Donovan in 2006. And Donovan, then 37, was already a Hall of Famer.
Typically, the post unofficially knights already established legends. America has won the last eight Olympic gold medals in women’s basketball and six of the last seven World Cups. The streak began with the 1996 Olympic team, which swept the nation and led to the WNBA’s launch a year later. The coach, Tara VanDerveer, had won two national championships and taken Stanford to four Final Fours.
Cheryl Reeve, tabbed to lead the last cycle, won four WNBA titles as a head coach. Dawn Staley, a Hall of Fame player, reached two Final Fours and elevated South Carolina to the doorstep of a national championship when she took the Team USA job in 2017. Geno Auriemma, a veritable giant in the sport, preceded Staley. And before Auriemma, Team USA tapped Donovan, who led the Seattle Storm to a WNBA title as the first female coach to do so. And before Donovan: Van Chancellor, who coached the WNBA’s first dynasty as his Houston Comets won the league’s first four titles.
Lawson doesn’t have those credentials. Not yet. Thus the significance of March and April.
Lawson, who guided Duke women’s basketball through the pandemic and reversed its dive into mediocrity, entered this tournament a danger to the favorites. The Blue Devils earned a No. 3 seed in the Sacramento 2 Region, then breezed through the first two rounds. A trip to the Final Four now requires getting through No. 2 seed LSU, then potentially top-seed UCLA this weekend. The odds look down on Lawson’s program.
“For our team to be able to navigate the ups and downs of the journey this year,” Lawson said, “to be able to come through that and hit a good stretch, to be able to sweep the regular season and tournament titles, I’m just so proud of what we’ve been able to do. … But you don’t start the game up because you won the conference tournament or you won the regular season. You have to play each game with the appropriate amount of focus and discipline and effort.”
No matter what happens, September follows quickly. That’s when the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup — Lawson’s first big tournament and the prequel to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles — kicks off in Germany.
The current magnification of women’s basketball tops any previous point in history. The fame, the money, and depth of talent are all peaking for women hoopers. Yet, one could argue — and Bird is — that Lawson’s readiness for this era matches any other.
“When I thought about the qualities that we were gonna need for our head coach, I looked for someone who understood the experience of having USA on their chest,” Bird said as she introduced Lawson during a September press conference at Duke.
“In Kara’s case, it came in the form of a jersey as well as a polo. And I think with the 13 gold medals that she has won as both a coach and a player, her international experience is unmatched.”
America’s imperial reign isn’t quite under siege — and may never be, considering the talent in the pipeline. But the rest of the world lurks in their rear view and are closer than they appear, as symbolized by the nail-biting win over France in the 2024 Olympic gold-medal game. Losing hasn’t seemed this possible for the U.S. women since, perhaps, the Australians of the early 2000s had Lauren Jackson and Michele Timms. And America isn’t so experienced anymore.
Diana Taurasi retired. Brittney Griner’s days as a premier center have ended. Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jewell Loyd — they are the new elder stateswomen. This cycle belongs to the new stars: A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier, neither of whom joined the team in Puerto Rico. Caitlin Clark, who won MVP of the FIBA qualifying tournament. Angel Reese. Paige Bueckers. Rhyne Howard. Not to mention the college stars on their way.
The new wave is loaded. The bet Bird placed hinges on Lawson, that her concoction of attributes and experiences applies deftly to this pending new era.
“Her passion, her energy, her competitive spirit,” Clark said of Lawson in an episode of USA Basketball’s “The Gold Standard” series, “that impacts all of us.”
The voice of Kara Lawson tells a story.
Of a woman meant to be heard. One endowed with a calling to lead. With a point guard’s projection and a preacher’s pace, Lawson’s voice snatches attention. Confidence straps to her words.
There’s home in that voice. Virginia in that voice. Where kids played out front with the neighbors’ kids. Where Lawson raked leaves, shoveled snow and delivered The Washington Post for money. Where her celebrity at West Springfield High often held up her family’s departure after games.
“We waited for her for like 45 minutes to sign autographs,” Lawson’s youngest sister, Mary, said. “There would be a really huge group of people waiting. And I’d be like, ‘C’mon.'”
Her voice reverberates with the character of home, poured into her over the years. Lawson’s father, William, served in Vietnam with the Marine Corps before landing in the public school system, where he met his wife, Kathleen. The author of Lawson’s gentle side. And as the middle child, Lawson learned humility and responsibility sandwiched between sisters.
Her voice carries that character.
“Ever since you were born and able to dress yourself, OK?” Lawson said in one of her viral speeches at Duke. “There has not been one day that you forgot to put clothes on.”
She let the punchline sink in. The chuckles arrived.
“Right? … You do not leave the house butt naked. … And if you did, you’d get arrested. … We’re laughing because that’s silly to think, isn’t it? That you would leave your house without your clothes on. But we will consistently leave our house without our confidence. … What?”
She paused again after the rhetorical question. The applause that rang out when she revealed her point subsided into a hush. Lawson let silence do the talking as her players digested the metaphor. Then another quip strategically shifted the energy again.
“I’d rather be butt naked with confidence …”
This display revealed the rizz accrued over the years.
Will it work on professionals? In the condensed chemistry project that is USA Basketball? With egos and narratives and expectations pressurizing their atmosphere?
Clear communication, rousing speeches, a way with words, they only matter when a coach has the chops, which is why the resurrection of Duke this season matters in the realm of narratives.
After the Blue Devils survived a 70-65 overtime win for the ACC tournament championship, Lawson dove into expert motivator mode.
“We feel really prepared going into March,” Lawson said from the podium. “We’re not entitled. We know we’re going to have to earn it every single game. We talk about that a lot. You should have to earn it. The championship game should be hard. We should be down. It should go to overtime. We should have people foul out. You expect a championship to be anything less? That’s why it’s so meaningful when you do it. It’s so meaningful because you have to put everything on the line not knowing whether it’s going to happen for you or not. That takes courage.”
The gravitas of legendary coaches proves valuable in this setup, in which the schedule doesn’t allow for time to conjure harmony. So Team USA will bank on the star potential of Lawson — whose experience, presence and knowledge translates as credibility to the best in the world. She peacocks that capacity with her voice.
“She’s an amazing communicator,” Boston Celtics president Brad Stevens said. “Like, amazing. Smart. Prepared. And as a result, very concise in the way that she simplifies things for players. She seemed to know basketball at a level you just don’t ever see. But I think the best figure out a way to take all of that and put it into the simplest terms. And she does that well.”
Lawson’s voice already resonates with some of the newer stars. In 2017, she began coaching 3×3 for Team USA. Her teams won seven gold medals across youth and senior levels, including men. When the U.S. women won gold in the first 3×3 competition in the Olympics, in 2021 in Tokyo, she coached four WNBA players, with three of them — Kelsey Plum, Allisha Gray, and Jackie Young — expected to be in the mix for 2028.
“Just seeing Kara go from assistant to the head,” Kahleah Copper of the Phoenix Mercury, who played for Lawson when she was an assistant on the 2022 FIBA World Cup championship team, said in “The Gold Standard.” “She’s just been incredible.”
Lawson served as head coach of the 2025 USA Women’s AmeriCup Team in July in Chile. The squad, loaded with current college stars, went 7-0 en route to gold.
“There’s enough of them that I know and I’ve coached, and that’s great. Because there’s a familiarity,” Lawson said. Over her right shoulder sits a stack of 22 versions of Kobe 6 Nikes, each encased in a clear box, including multiple pairs made especially for Duke. She’s got another pair on her feet in Team USA colors.
“I think that’s important. And then the ones that I don’t know, I look forward to building it. Again, it’s about connection. To sit here and think this is about basketball is crazy. It’s about impacting young women.”
Lawson’s voice can also have some bite. Her wit, her comfort with the proverbial smoke, her expertise at banter, produce zingers.
“I mean, we go back to like 10, 11 years old,” Bird said during a chat with Lawson before an audience at her introductory press conference.
“Kara rocked those pigtails. That’s what we called you, by the way, behind your back. We’re like, ‘Who’s guarding Pigtail?'”
Lawson’s eyes widened as she quickly raised the microphone to her mouth with a smile. She answered Bird’s rhetorical question with one word.
“Nobody.”
Certainly, many players love that about Lawson. Subtle reminders she’s cut from their cloth. One of them.
But it’s the calm in her voice, the assurance it gives, that figures to be paramount. Her willingness to handle tough conversations coupled with the deftness to maneuver through them productively.
Because the tough roster decisions are coming. The managing of minutes and lineups with all this talent provides ripe soil for controversy and distraction. The magnitude of women’s basketball, the surpassing popularity (and history) of Clark and Reese, the inevitable changing of the guard in USA Basketball. A savvy unifier is necessary.
Lawson already got a dose back in December, a situation that illustrated why she’s fit for the challenge.
In a showdown between LSU and Duke, Tigers guard Flau’jae Johnson talked that good trash to Lawson during a pivotal run late in LSU’s road win. It drew some attention, especially after LSU coach Kim Mulkey credited the exchange to Johnson’s loss of confidence playing for Lawson in the 2025 AmeriCup. Johnson totaled 82 minutes in seven games, shooting a team-worst 32.4 percent. Only Audi Crooks, Iowa State’s star center, played fewer minutes in Chile.
Yet, after the game, Johnson cleared up the motives behind her in-game energy.
“Last night was a competitive environment and Duke is an amazing team,” she wrote on X. “Their record does not reflect their grit or toughness. I was fired up in the moment but I have nothing but the utmost respect for Coach Kara Lawson, the coach I won my first Gold Medal under. Don’t get it twisted, she’s a legend.”
The tears of Kara Lawson tell a story. Even as she tries to fight them.
She steps to the podium, ready to speak publicly on landing women’s basketball’s most coveted gig. But the gratitude overwhelms her. The sense of accomplishment, after all she poured into this game, trembled her soul. So she stepped back. She closed those eyes. She quieted that voice. Lawson bowed her head and let the tears have their way.
“The game just got started, and I already need a timeout,” Lawson said after eventually stepping to the mic, dabbing her tears with the tissues she had prepared.
Then she listed, from memory, every Team USA women’s basketball coach in history, saving her own name for last.
That’s the basketball junkie in Lawson. She can talk the game until her lips fall off. Then she’ll listen to people talk ball until her ears do.
“Her brain is sick,” Duke associate head coach Tia Jackson, who’s been coaching since 1996 after playing for the legendary C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa, said. “She’s a sponge. She wants it. Once she knows, she tries to master it. And she does it quickly.”
Her basketball journey sat her at the feet of Pat Summitt in Knoxville, Tenn. Put her in a backcourt with an all-time great point guard in Ticha Penicheiro in Sacramento. Had her on the 2008 Olympic gold-medal team led by legends Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Tamika Catchings and Katie Smith.
Before all that, the journey began in the passenger seat of her father’s car.
She spent countless hours driving to and from practices and games with William. Back then, before cellphones hijacked attention, time elapsed through conversation.
“She has a lot of my dad’s qualities,” said Lawson’s baby sister, Mary. “When she goes after something, she goes after it hard.”
Those tears Lawson shed on the stage tell the story of those untold hours of conversation with her father. Her coach. Her trainer. Her standard. Her idol.
“I think that I find as I get older,” she said, “he’s built me to last. The things he instilled in me are built to last. The mindset. The drive. The confidence. … It’s not going away.”
And she left his passenger seat to ride with Summitt, the one whose influence pushed her to coach.
Lawson’s eyes widen when she relays what feels like so much more than coincidence. The last time the Olympics were in Los Angeles, in 1984, Summitt coached the women to gold. In 2028, the Olympics will be in Los Angeles again. And Lawson will do the honors.
She cries, sometimes randomly, because the gratitude doesn’t go away. Her beautiful mind holds that just as close as basketball. The more she knows, the more she accomplishes, only highlights what it took to get here. The support she’s received.
“Her loyalty to her friends and to her family knows no bounds,” Cameron Broome, Lawson’s roommate for three years at Tennessee, said. “She would do anything for any of us, would drop everything to be with us.”
“I am impressed by her ability to maintain connections with people,” Lawson’s sister, Susan, added. “There are so many people that she has had at different phases in her life who she still continues to show up for. She put so much effort into maintaining relationships.”
Two of the most critical relationships hover in the atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Lawson reserved their space. In the first row of white chairs set up on the court, two remain empty. They both have name tags on their seats. Lawson can’t look at them.
Even a glance will make her cry.
One reads Coach Pat Summitt. One reads William Lawson.
She longed to coach Team USA because of them. Her tears tell the story of a dream coming true.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Duke Blue Devils, Women's College Basketball, Olympics
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