Kara Lawson tabbed as primary analyst for Wizards games

Kara Lawson didn’t target the Washington Wizards’ analyst job when she was 23 years old and wondering where she wanted to go with her broadcasting duties. She wanted a full-time analyst job in the NBA, something that was unheard of for women then and elusive even a decade later, and out of reach at the time when she was doing studio and sideline work for the Sacramento Kings. Lawson thought she might one day call Kings games and that would be grand.

Then, a chance came up at the start of this summer, which has been a significant push for women moving into the color spot on NBA broadcasts. Lawson sat down next to longtime Wizards play-by-play voice Steve Buckhantz and worked her audition for the spot vacated after CSN Mid-Atlantic decided not to bring back Phil Chenier in the role. Lawson was accustomed to working with new partners and people on the fly because of her job as a studio analyst with ESPN, which bounced around to various games in both college basketball and the NBA.

Wednesday morning, CSN announced that Lawson would be replacing Chenier, who was the analyst for 33 seasons.

Lawson, 36, is aware of the weight around two prominent storylines from her hire. First, she is taking the job Chenier, whom she called a “voice of my childhood,” held for decades. She is also part of small group of women cracking into analyst spots.

The word “replace” is not quite applicable when talking about Chenier. As Lawson explained Wednesday in a telephone interview, she is not replacing the goodwill, playing career or years of Chenier’s ambassadorship for the organization that will retire his number this season.

“He’s somebody that can’t be replaced in the sense that his impact is as high and as powerful as any player that’s played for the Washington franchise,” Lawson said. “When you look at him as a player, how talented he was, him as a broadcaster and how long he’s been associated with the franchise and how great an ambassador he has been for our city. All that is not going away. All that is very much a part of the Wizards and going to continue to be a part of the Wizards. I’m not replacing that. I’m hired to talk basketball, cover the team, cover the games. That’s going to be my focus. I know I can do that, and I know I do that very well. All those other things surrounding the job is not really what I’m worried about.”

After decades of being shut out, the hiring of female NBA analysts surged, comparatively, in the last two years. Doris Burke, renowned for her NBA work, was moved to a full-time national game analyst role for ESPN. Stephanie Ready became the first woman to hold a full-time game analyst role for a team in 2015. She is part of the Charlotte Hornets’ broadcast. Two weeks ago, Sarah Kustok was named the full-time analyst for the Brooklyn Nets. In a June 2015 interview with The Washington Times, Lawson spoke specifically about the lack of full-time game analysts who were female. She viewed it as the last spot in NBA broadcasting to open to women. Her hiring, along with that of Burke and others, has helped start to change that circumstance.

“I would say there’s been a shift in a positive direction,” Lawson said.

Lawson played 13 seasons in the WNBA after starring at Tennessee. She won a championship in 2005, and a gold medal in the Olympics in 2008. She was an ardent Bullets fan while growing up in Virginia.

In 2007, Lawson was the first woman to work as a national NBA game as an analyst. Fittingly, the game was between the New Orleans Hornets and the Wizards in Oklahoma.

She plans to build files of notes on each team. As a player, she was manic about preparation. Lawson expects the same style of planning to be applied to her new job. She will work with film to compile information, plus talk with the home and visiting players and others around the game. She said Wednesday that the broadcast will of course be Wizards-first. But, she also said that having information to explain things about the opposition — from background to why they are on a run during the game — will be part of the equation.

Becoming coordinated with Buckhantz will, naturally, take time. The pair also needs to get in sync with the production truck and director of the broadcast.

For now, Lawson is just ready to get started.

“Lo and behold, an opportunity comes about in your hometown for the team you rooted for growing up,” Lawson said. “You get a chance to audition for it, and here we are. It’s a full-circle moment for me.”