Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson named U.S. national team assistant
Entering her third season as Duke’s coach, Kara Lawson will coach on the world stage in September with the U.S. national women’s basketball team.
USA Basketball named Lawson as an assistant coach for the national team’s FIBA women’s World Cup tournament at Sydney, Australia, Sept. 22-Oct. 1.
Cheryl Reeves, head of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, is the U.S. team’s head coach. Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault and Texas A&M head coach Joni Taylor join Lawson as Reeves’ assistants.
“Over the last 25 years,” Lawson said in a statement, “every minute I’ve spent working with USA Basketball has been an absolute joy. To now be selected to assist Cheryl at the upcoming World Cup is an incredible honor.”
Lawson’s history with USA Basketball is already robust, having won an Olympic gold medal as a player in 2008 at the Beijing Games. As head coach of USA Basketball’s women’s 3-on-3 team since 2017, Lawson helped win seven gold medals. That includes the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were held last summer due to the pandemic.
She worked as a court coach with the U.S. team at its spring training camp at Minneapolis earlier this year.
“Having played on the national team,” Lawson said, “I understand the importance of this new appointment. I promise to represent our country with great pride this fall. I will do my part to help our players and staff be as prepared as possible to experience the greatest success in Australia.”
The U.S. team is the reigning World Cup champion, having gone 6-0 to finish first at the 2018 World Cup in the Spanish Canary Islands for its third consecutive World Cup championship. The Americans also won Olympic gold in Tokyo last summer.
“It’s a great honor to be part of USA Basketball and having the opportunity to work alongside some of the most talented and respected coaches in the game make the experience even more special,” Reeves said in a statement from USA Basketball. “I’m looking forward to working with Mike, Kara and Joni as we prepare for the 2022 FIBA World Cup.”
Lawson will help coach Chelsea Gray, the former Duke guard currently with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, on the U.S. national team. Azura Stevens, a Cary High School graduate who played at Duke and Connecticut and is now with the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, is also on the team.