Kara Lawson has always wanted to coach at Duke — a fact the first-time college head coach hadn't shared with many people.
Once the job opened up earlier this month, the Boston Celtics assistant jumped at the opportunity.
“I knew that if it ever came open I’d try and put my best foot forward and try to secure the position. That’s how highly I thought of the institution and the job," Lawson said on an introductory Zoom call Monday. “I had no idea it would happen a year after I went to Boston. It wasn’t in the plans so to speak.”
Lawson said that her mom, Kathleen – who was wearing Duke blue during the Zoom call – had wanted her to attend Duke as an undergrad, but she ended up choosing Tennessee and having an illustrious playing career for the Lady Vols under legendary Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.
“Mom was the one who wanted me to go to Duke,” Lawson said. “Dad wanted me to go to Stanford. I picked Tennessee.”
The 39-year-old coach said that she knows Summitt would be excited for her.
“She knew a goal of mine was to become a coach. I wanted to become a coach and learn from the best and that led me to Knoxville,” Lawson said. “She'd be pretty excited. I don't know if she'd be wearing blue.”
Lawson appeared in three Final Fours at Tennessee and then played in the WNBA from 2003-15, winning the 2005 championship 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.
“It’s been an emotional three days, it’s been tough,” said Lawson, who is in the NBA bubble in Orlando. “I think it's the relationships that makes basketball special. I’ve built a lot of deep relationships with these guys. Any coach that’s leaving a place and going to another place knows that feeling. It’s hard to leave.”
Lawson inherits a Duke program that hasn’t won a league title since the ACC added national powers Notre Dame (2013) and Louisville (2014) to what was already a top-flight conference. She replaces Joanne P. McCallie, who led Duke to at least a share of the regular-season title four times and three ACC Tournament titles while also making 10 trips to the NCAA Tournament, including four straight trips to the Elite Eight from 2010-13.
But the Blue Devils have failed to finish in the top three of the league regular-season race in four of the past seven years since the most recent wave of league expansion. Duke finished 18-12 this past year in a pandemic-shortened season. With a year remaining on her contract, McCallie resigned on July 2 after 13 seasons on the job.
Lawson knows one of her first tasks will be to hire assistants. What she’s looking for is simple — experience.
She's already reached out to many of the Duke alums, some of whom were former teammates or opponents of hers in the WNBA.
“The legacy at that program that I know she wants to uphold and create her own journey and energy,” said Sparks guard Chelsea Gray, who starred at Duke from 2010-14. “She’s a great basketball mind. They did an excellent job choosing Kara... I'm excited for the next chapter at Duke and they picked a great person to lead them in that journey.”
Duke is the second Atlantic Coast Conference program this offseason to hire a Black female head coach. Notre Dame hired Memphis Grizzlies assistant Niele Ivey — a former Fighting Irish player and assistant — to replace Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw in April. Tina Thompson, who was hired by Virginia in 2018, is the ACC’s other Black female head coach.
“I’m excited for all those women with their opportunities,” Lawson said. “I spoke with Niele yesterday, Dawn (Staley) this morning, Tina Thompson over text. People I’ve known for a long time.”
