During the Washington Mystics' offseason, most players go overseas to play. But veteran guard Kara Lawson remains stateside to focus on her blossoming broadcasting career.
Since 2004, she has been a basketball color analyst on ESPN. Most of the time, you can hear her providing analysis for women's and men's college basketball games. In addition, she has also done color commentary on ESPN Radio for NBA games
On Christmas Day 2015, Lawson was alongside ESPN play by play announcer Mark Jones to serve as color analyst for the Heat vs. Pelicans game. Miami pulled out a 94-88 overtime victory.
Here's just one snippet of her commentary and I'll admit it that won't do her justice:
Kara Lawson has been on point for #NBAxmas today for the Heat vs Pels game https://t.co/rxqCFDbVIK
— Albert L. (@aleeinthedmv) December 25, 2015
There were plenty of tweets who praised Lawson for calling the game as she saw it, without bias. As a one-time WNBA Champion, All-Star, and Olympic Gold Medalist she definitely knows her basketball. Below is just a sample of the many tweets before and throughout the game:
Awesome to see Kara Lawson will be doing her first ESPN NBA game today (NOH at MIA) #NBAXmas https://t.co/fPc34fxqis pic.twitter.com/diCpHiL6NM
— Nate P (@NateP_SBN) December 25, 2015
Our own @KaraLawson20 is adding the color commentary for #NOPatMIA on ESPN!
— WNBA (@WNBA) December 25, 2015
Kara Lawson is great. She was in the studio for a Miami (Canes) game last year and I came away so impressed. Glad she's on a Christmas game.
— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) December 25, 2015
Kara Lawson is really terrific. Talking about the discrepancy in Whiteside's individual team numbers and Miami's defense w/ him on the court
— Jordan White (@JordanSWhite) December 25, 2015
Kara Lawson just discussed the weird "Heat D better with Whiteside sitting" that @YaronWeitzman examined here. https://t.co/Dvx66nxISA
— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) December 25, 2015
Nothing like a little @NBA on Christmas with the fam Great job on the game @karalawson20 killing it
— Swin Cash (@SwinCash) December 25, 2015
Preach, Kara Lawson. She's great ripping them for this. https://t.co/xvkmXSdMvf
— Jared Wade (@Jared_Wade) December 25, 2015
Kara Lawson needs to do more NBA games
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) December 25, 2015
Would take a @heydb/@karalawson20 announce crew. (I feel 9,000% confident DB could do excellent PBP.) https://t.co/kbQ7MDM9PE
— Seth Partnow (@SethPartnow) December 25, 2015
Can we get Kara Lawson on more telecasts? I love that she calls it like it is, with no sugarcoating.
— Chris Herring (@HerringWSJ) December 25, 2015
Even though we're now in an era of the NBA where we are seeing more women take notable roles on the court and broadcasting like:
- Michele Roberts becoming the first female to be the leader of the National Basketball Players Association in 2014
- Lauren Holtkamp being the first full-time female NBA referee since Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner in 2014
- Becky Hammon becoming the first female full-time NBA assistant coach when she joined the Spurs in 2014 after a storied WNBA playing career
- Nancy Lieberman becoming the second female full-time NBA assistant coach when she joined the Kings in 2015
- Stephanie Ready becoming the first female full-time game analyst for an NBA team's regional affiliate in 2015 (she's with the Charlotte Hornets)
we still see stuff like Gilbert Arenas' recent Instagram posts or tweets like this on Lawson (I didn't bother embedding it so a picture will do):
WUT pic.twitter.com/avhbnh5Bbm
— Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) December 25, 2015
That tweet was unfortunate, but it's a good thing to see that the vast majority of people genuinely enjoyed Lawson's commentary. I fully expect to see her commentate in more nationally televised NBA games before too long.