Kara Lawson is named head coach of
the US women's basketball team for the 2028 LA Olympics
[September 23, 2025]
By DOUG FEINBERG
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.
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Head coach Kara Lawson directs players during a USA Basketball
women's Americup Trials practice on June 18, 2025, at the USA
Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David
Zalubowski, File)

“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.”
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