USA women's basketball team announces impressive HC hiring

The United States women's basketball team announced it will now be under the guidance and leadership of 2008 gold medalist Kara Lawson. Lawson, a true student of the game and current head coach of Duke University’s women’s basketball team, will look to help the national team repeat its dominance and add yet another gold medal to USA’s global trophy case.

Replacing previous head coach Cheryl Reeve, Lawson, who has been at the helm of the Duke women’s basketball program for the past five seasons, has always demanded hard work, accountability and togetherness from her players. Last year, Duke won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), marking the program’s first ACC Tournament championship since 2013, and made it to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, where it was eliminated by top-seeded South Carolina by just four points (54–50).

Lawson is also a WNBA champion, winning the title in 2005 with the Sacramento Monarchs. In 2020, Lawson led the USA Women’s 3×3 basketball team to its first gold medal in Tokyo while serving as head coach. She was also an assistant coach during the FIBA World Cup in 2022 and an assistant coach during the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Her hiring comes on the heels of the women’s national team beginning the journey to prepare for the 2026 FIBA Cup, hosted in Berlin, Germany, and the Olympics taking place in Los Angeles in 2028.

Lawson shared her thoughts with the Olympics’ official website upon her hiring:

“This has been something I’ve worked towards for a long time. I’m thankful to all of the players that I’ve had the opportunity to coach and all of the coaches I’ve learned from. There is nothing more important than pushing this group to reach its potential.”

Earlier this month on Sept. 15, another highly decorated former USA women’s basketball player Elena Delle Donne was appointed managing director of USA women’s basketball 3×3 team.