By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer
Kara Lawson helped the U.S. women’s basketball team win an Olympic gold medal as a player 17 years ago. Now she’ll have a chance to lead it to another as the coach in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Lawson was announced as the head coach for the women’s team for the next four years by USA Basketball on Monday.
“I mean it’s hard to put everything into words as it’s something I’ve been working towards. I have so much love for USA Basketball and have been so excited to serve in any capacity they ask me to,” Lawson said in a phone interview. “It’s the best job in the sport in our country. To lead the U.S. women’s national team is such an amazing feeling. I felt a great sense of excitement and pride and just am really grateful for the opportunity.”
Naming Lawson coach was the first official move made by Sue Bird, who started as the U.S. national team director earlier this year. In the past, a committee would decide on the coach and roster.
“I think her resume, her experience, it all kind of speaks for itself,” Bird said in a phone interview. “When you start to learn about Kara and what she’s been a part of from a USA Basketball standpoint, that experience specifically made it really clear she’s the right person to lead us into the next cycle.”
Lawson’s first chance to coach the team in a major competition will be at the World Cup next September in Germany. The Americans will play next March in a qualifier for that tournament, but that’s right before the NCAA Tournament, which would make it difficult for Lawson to coach the U.S. because she also leads Duke’s women’s basketball team.
“Assembling a great staff for the national team is of the utmost importance,” said the 44-year-old Lawson. “I’ll lean on that staff a lot through that cycle. … You have to have great coaches around you, have great players around you. We have the ability to do both and that will be our challenge. Find the right group that will fit.”
In addition to the Olympic gold she won as a player at the Beijing Games, Lawson helped the U.S. win gold as an assistant coach at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics and as head coach at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in July.
“I know this from playing with her and know this from all the conversations I had with her: I’m hard-pressed to find someone who is as prepared as Kara is,” Bird said.
Lawson also coached the USA Basketball 3-on-3 team to gold at the Tokyo Games, the first time that sport had been contested at an Olympics.
“Kara has been involved with USA Basketball dating back to 1998 as a high school player in the World Youth Games,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said. “Her international basketball experience is extensive, including 13 gold medals. To say her journey with us has been impressive is an understatement. I’m excited to watch Kara and Sue work together to deliver success at the World Cup in Berlin next fall and at the Olympic Games in LA in 2028.”
Lawson’s path to coaching wasn’t similar to the one many others have taken. She went from playing 13 years in the WNBA to becoming a broadcaster. From there, she spent time with the Boston Celtics as an assistant before getting the Duke job in 2020.
She led Duke to its first ACC Tournament championship under her watch last March, and the Blue Devils made a run to the Elite Eight. The team has advanced further in the NCAA Tournament each of the past three seasons.
Lawson was a point guard at Tennessee and credits her time learning under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt as a big reason for her recent success on the sideline. Summitt was the Olympic coach in 1984 when the U.S. won gold at home in Los Angeles.
Lawson looks forward to the opportunity to coach the U.S. on its home soil in an Olympics for the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“This appointment wherever the Olympics would be is an incredible honor,” she said. “The opportunity to lead the American side in Los Angeles in a home Olympics is more added icing on the cake. What an incredible opportunity not just for me as a coach, but the other coaches on the staff, the players that get to play in a home Olympics as well. It’s a very unique opportunity that your country doesn’t get very often.”