Former Tennessee women’s basketball player Kara Lawson will serve as head coach for Team USA’s women’s basketball team for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The Olympics will take place July 14-30, 2028 in Los Angeles, California.
Lawson’s term as Team USA’s head coach is from 2025-28. She also serves as head women’s basketball coach at Duke, guiding the Blue Devils to a 2025 ACC Tournament championship.
Lawson guided Team USA’s 3×3 women’s team to a gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, contested in 2021.
She played for the Lady Vols from 1999-2003 under head coach Pat Summitt. The former Lady Vols was an All-American and a four-time First-Team All-SEC selection. Lawson was also named to the conference’s all-freshmen team in 2000. She won an Olympic gold medal in 2008 at Beijing.
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Following her collegiate career, Lawson played in the WNBA for Sacramento (2003-09), Connecticut (2010-13) and Washington (2013-15). She was selected in the first round of the 2003 WNBA draft (No. 5 overall) by Detroit. Lawson won a WNBA championship with the Monarchs in 2005 and was a WNBA All-Star in 2007.
She previously served as an ESPN studio analyst for college and NBA, and was an assistant coach for the Celtics from 2019-20.
