The former WNBA veteran and hoops analyst becomes one of four women who are assistant NBA coaches.
The Boston Celtics have hired WNBA and Olympic champion Kara Lawson as an assistant coach, league sources tell ESPN.
Lawson currently serves as an insightful and passionate ESPN analyst and has been a TV analyst for the Washington Wizards for the past three seasons as she’s contemplated potential coaching jobs along the way.
Lawson is the fourth woman to be hired as an assistant and join an NBA bench. She joins San Antonio’s Becky Hammon, Dallas’ Jenny Boucek and Cleveland’s Lindsay Gottlieb in that special group. Hammon has interviewed for several head coaching jobs and is in line to become the first female head coach in NBA history within three years.
Report: Celtics hire Kara Lawson as an assistant coach https://t.co/KxBv5tW196
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) June 27, 2019
The recent influx of women in NBA assistant coaching and executive positions is a great step for the NBA in diversity.
While there has never been a Latino or female general manager, Swin Cash was recently named Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development for the New Orleans Pelicans and the percentage of women CEO/Presidents has increased three years in a row, as there are more women serving in this leadership position (seven) than all other professional sports leagues combined.
Lawson, 38, has been coaching USA Basketball’s 3-on-3 teams that are currently in FIBA competitions and preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
She says the chance to work with lauded coach Brad Stevens and a flagship NBA franchise such as the Celtics convinced her and her agent, was CAA’s Bret Just, to accept an offer on Thursday, league sources said.
Lawson was a feisty point guard that lead one of Pat Summitt’s legendary Tennessee squads to three trips to the Final Four and then she went on to play 12 seasons in the WNBA.
