Duke’s new female basketball head coach Kara Lawson, Duke athletic director Kevin White, and Duke senior congresswoman AD Nina King addressed the media today through ZOOM.
In case anyone thinks there’s no interest in Duke’s women’s hoops, more than 70 members of the media participated.
Here are some highlights.
Duke used an outside agency, Collegiate Sports Associates, to do some preliminary work, but King was the key person.
King said Duke had interest from more than 20 “serious” candidates, he narrowed that down to six and then two before selecting Lawson. King wouldn’t name the other five, but Lindsey Harding was on that short list.
Current Duke players Jade Williams, Onome Akinbode-James and Mikalya Boykin had the opportunity to speak with Lawson and offer their opinions.
Lawson, of course, has been in the public eye for some time, first as an All-American in Tennessee, then a star in the WNBA and the Olympics, then working with ESPN, and finally a one-year stint as an assistant at Boston Celtics.
In other words, she knows how to get around a basketball court.
But I was amazed at the amount of time I spent discussing intangibles, qualities, and values that could be applied to people in numerous professions.
Here is the target.
“Kara is very authentic. . . She is remarkably comfortable with her own skin, which is one of the truly great leadership traits. . . . She is a natural leader. . . She has a contemporary vision. . . . Kara is very empathetic and has what I call the ‘adaptability gene’. She has continuously demonstrated situational leadership and flexibility. “
While praising Lawson’s “incredible basketball IQ,” King added that Lawson is a “teacher, mentor, leader, and champion.”
White also elaborated on his earlier comments on Lawson’s “emotional intelligence”.
“I think Kara is someone very instinctive, very worldly. . . experienced and my instinct is that. . . I think she knows where the buttons are, I think she knows how people operate, I think she can put herself in people’s positions. “
So what does Lawson have to say about all this?
She recognized that Duke was one of the few schools that could make her give up her dream of becoming the NBA’s head coach.
Describing discussions with Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, Lawson said, “I will say that one of the places I would have loved to have the opportunity to coach was for Duke. I didn’t share that with many people. . . I knew that if it ever opened, I would put my best foot forward and try to secure the position. That’s how well I thought about the institution and the job. I certainly had no idea what would happen a year after going to Boston, but when the right opportunity presents itself, you take it. ”
Lawson referred to being one of a wave of young black women entering the coaching ranks, the support she received from the Duke community and Mike Krzyzewski in particular, and her desire to learn about her new team and new conference.
What can we expect from a team trained by Kara Lawson?
That word “adaptability” again seems appropriate.
“I am not going to sit here and say that we are going to play this way or another way. I think the ability to be adaptable and to have players that are adaptable is vital. . . . I am going to find out what works for us and strive to master it. If you keep it simple in terms of your goals, that gives you an opportunity to really achieve them. ”
Lawson did not discuss specific details in team building, except that she will prioritize “Experience.” Thats what Im looking for. Like playing, you want to form a group that fits. “
It seems like a good idea for a young coach.
But a recurring theme is that Kara Lawson is a person of people, whether we are talking about fans, alumni, ex-players, the media and, above all, their players.
“I think my philosophy would be relationships and relationship building. . . . If you want to be able to put pressure on the players to do it, to be great, I think you should have a solid base with them. So, I would say, philosophically, a relationship-based program. “
Lawson still has a couple of weeks in Orlando before taking over a Duke team that has fallen from its elite status. It remains to be seen if she is the person who will restore Duke to his former glory and perhaps even get over it. But the first returns are positive off the charts. There’s no question that coach Kara Lawson is ready for the kind of start-up that should provide the kind of starting point that will pay big dividends going forward.
