Duke Blue Devils WiretapMay 2020 Duke Blue Devils Wiretap

Kara Lawson Hired As Head Coach Of Duke Women's Basketball

Jul 11, 2020 10:50 PM

Duke women's basketball program hired Kara Lawson as its head coach on Saturday.

The 39-year-old Lawson was an assistant with the Celtics this season.

"Well, it is a dream come true for me. I have wanted to be a coach since I was a kid. To have an opportunity to lead a group of young women at a prestigious university like Duke -- I have run out of words; it is unbelievable and very exciting," said Lawson in a statement.

Lawson is the first Black head coach in the program's history.

"Throughout the process, it became abundantly clear that her authenticity, passion, contemporary vision and unwavering commitment to the student-athlete experience align seamlessly with the values of the institution," said athletic director Kevin White.

Mechelle Voepel/ESPN

Tags: Boston Celtics, Duke Blue Devils, NCAA, NCAA B-Ball IQ

Discuss
Kara Lawson Is Leading Candidate To Take Over Duke Women's Basketball Program

Jul 11, 2020 12:13 PM

Kara Lawson is currently in talks to take over as the head coach of the Duke women's basketball program.

The 39-year-old, currently an assistant with the Celtics, is the leading candidate for the job.

"I've been asked not to comment on that. I mean, everybody knows what I think of Kara. She's unbelievable. When I can comment on it, I will," said Brad Stevens on Friday.


ESPN

Tags: Boston Celtics, Duke Blue Devils, NCAA, NCAA Misc Rumor

Discuss
Zion Williamson's Stepfather Allegedly Accepted $400,000 Payment Before Season At Duke

Jul 10, 2020 11:14 AM

The stepfather of Zion Williamson allegedly solicited and accepted a $400,000 payment from a marketing agent in October 2018, per a court motion and sworn affidavit filed by his former marketing representative's attorneys in federal court on Thursday.

Gina Ford's attorneys say the affidavit and other exhibits show that Williamson was ineligible when he played for Duke in 18-19 after his stepfather, Lee Anderson, received impermissible benefits from Slavko Duric, a Canadian marketing agent.

"[We] obtained newly discovered evidence impacting the issue of whether Zion Williamson was a 'student-athlete' that we believe makes it transparently clear, verifiable and indisputable that he was not a 'student-athlete' long before there was any communication or contact between Zion Williamson, and/or any third party acting on his behalf, and our clients," Ford's attorney, Alvin Pittman, wrote in a letter to Williamson's attorney on Monday.

"The alleged 'agreements' and driver's license attached to these papers are fraudulent, and neither Mr. Williamson nor his family know these individuals nor had any dealings with them," Williamson's attorney, Jeffrey Klein, said in a statement to ESPN. "We had previously alerted Ms. Ford's lawyers to both this fact and that we had previously reported the documents to law enforcement as forgeries, but they chose to go ahead with another frivolous filing anyway. This is a desperate and irresponsible attempt to smear Mr. Williamson at the very time he has the opportunity to live his dream of playing professional basketball."

Klein said in a letter to Pittman that a Google search revealed that Duric "purportedly attempted to defraud [Dallas Mavericks player] Luka Doncic ... using a scheme in which he forged Doncic's and his mother's signatures on a contract."

"The signatures on the documents you attach are also clearly fraudulent," Klein wrote in the letter. "The signature on the purported agreement between Maximum Management Group and Mr. Williamson does not match Mr. Williamson's signature on the Agreement he signed with your clients. And the signatures of Lee Anderson and Mr. Williamson on the Letter of Declaration are also inauthentic, as made clear by the fact that they are highly pixelated in comparison to the remainder of the document, and there is a break in the line beneath the 'Z' in Mr. Williamson's name where the signature was superimposed onto the document."

Mark Schlabach/ESPN

Tags: Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans, Duke Blue Devils, NCAA, NBA

Discuss