Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior WriterMar 15, 2024, 09:00 AM ETClose ACC reporter.
Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
Graduate of the University of Florida.DURHAM, N.C. — Duke coach Kara Lawson retains the messages despatched to her over the past yr and a half in a tidy three-ring binder in her workplace. They solely inform a fraction of the story. Open social media, discover her now well-known “Handle hard better” video and scroll by the tons of of feedback:”Great motivation!””I love this advice!””What a great message.”Editor’s Picks2 AssociatedThey maintain going and going, practically all of them applauding Lawson and the 2-minute, 49-second message she delivered to her crew in the summertime of 2022. All Lawson set out to do this day was to talk to her gamers about going through onerous challenges after a dialog she had with one of her freshmen.Lawson did not script what she wished to say. “Handle hard better” wasn’t even a catchphrase she used. “I don’t even know where ‘Handle hard better’ came from, to be honest with you,” Lawson advised ESPN final month.She simply did what she at all times does. She talked. A member of Duke’s video crew was there recording, the best way the workers does every single day at follow, and posted it on the Duke girls’s basketball social media pages and YouTube.”We all wait in life for things to get easier. It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better.”Then all the pieces modified.
The video went viral, totaling greater than 1 million views. Kara Lawson — an All-American at Tennessee, Olympic gold medalist, WNBA champion, the primary feminine assistant coach within the historical past of the Boston Celtics — had develop into the “Handle hard better” coach to a brand new technology of followers. Teachers and librarians, CEOs and realtors, navy personnel, coaches and gamers, most cancers sufferers and docs all adopted her message in several methods — to show, encourage and encourage.Though she first spoke the phrases in 2022, they’ve actual lasting results right this moment, as her Duke crew prepares for the NCAA event. The video message nonetheless will get shared on social media, and Lawson not often goes wherever with out being stopped and requested about her speech — even on the TSA line within the airport. She retains “Handle hard better” bracelets both in her bag or pocket handy out when the inevitable interplay occurs.Each individual has a narrative to inform.”There’s always a story behind people, and behind the words, and behind the impact,” Lawson stated. “That is part of the magic of ‘Handle hard better.’ People tell me their stories. That’s amazing. Because you go from having surface interactions with people that you don’t know to having really deep and meaningful ones. All because of a video. That’s pretty cool.”Nicholas Faulkner/Icon SportswireWHAT GOT LAWSON right here, because the gatekeeper to so many “Handle hard better” tales feels destined. Her total life embodies these three easy phrases.Though the speech has launched her to many for the primary time, Lawson has lived practically her total life within the public eye. She made her first nationwide tv look on NBC at age 8 because the “Sportsman of the Week” for her youth soccer prowess. She performed different sports activities, too, earlier than deciding on basketball, finally changing into the Naismith Prep Player of the Year in 1999.Her dad, William Lawson, meticulously labored to supply what Kara wanted to succeed, each athletically and academically. William had excessive expectations for his three daughters — B’s weren’t allowed in his home, and neither was an absence of focus, preparation or accountability. He took her to each follow, each game, each event, and labored her out, too. William as soon as described his relationship with Kara as “like twins joined at the hip.”But when she selected to play for the late Pat Summitt at Tennessee, William opposed the choice. In an archived interview with ESPN, William defined that he had anticipated to sit down down with Kara and talk about the professionals and cons of her prime decisions. But when he discovered Kara had dedicated to the Lady Vols with out telling him, he was blindsided and known as a household assembly. “I’ll never watch you play basketball again,” he advised Kara.Top tales of the week from Get unique entry to 1000’s of premium articles a yr from prime writers.
• Men’s hoops: Louisville’s coach opening? »
• Miller’s updated NFL draft rankings: Top 50 »
• Which European teams spend smartest? »
More ESPN+ content »
Lawson stated it was onerous at first to not have her dad at her video games, however she by no means let it have an effect on their relationship. It took practically 4 years for William to relent, thanks partially to a dialog with former Lady Vols teammate Ashley Robinson. Tennessee had traveled to play George Washington, near the Lawson house. Kara requested if she may invite the crew over.William spent three days cooking. He was there to greet the crew when the crew bus pulled up. It was the primary time he had met his daughter’s faculty teammates. Robinson stepped off the bus, gave him a hug and stated, “Mr. Lawson, you’re the only dad that’s not there.” Though William Lawson did not watch the George Washington game in individual, the dialog proved to be a turning level. He finally made his strategy to Knoxville and was there to look at Kara play for a nationwide championship on the Final Four in 2003.”It was never the wrong choice,” Kara Lawson stated. “When you know what your purpose is, and that’s a path that you need to walk, you’re solid in it. There was no doubt at all. That was where I was supposed to be, and who I was supposed to play for. I always knew I wanted to be a coach. To play for her … It changed my life.””I won’t be Pat Summitt. I won’t be my dad. But I can have impact like they did. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Kara Lawson
William and Summitt stay her two largest mentors. Their deaths 15 months aside — Summitt in 2016 and William in 2017 — have been essentially the most difficult time in her life. Learning tips on how to deal with onerous was, properly, onerous.”I was lamenting to one of my friends about loss,” Lawson stated. “Like, I don’t even know who to call now if I have a big career decision, or I have something in my life that I need. How do you, as an adult, find a new mentor? And he said something that stuck with me. He said, ‘Have you ever thought that it’s time for you to mentor other people?'”Lawson had by no means thought of it that method. But all of the life classes she realized from her dad and Summitt could possibly be poured into others. At the time, she was doing tv work for ESPN and had dipped her toe into teaching. Lawson stated that dialog recentered her, and she or he determined to pursue teaching to meet a lifelong dream.In 2019-20, she turned the primary feminine assistant in Celtics historical past. In 2020, Duke employed her for her first collegiate head teaching job.”I won’t be Pat Summitt,” Lawson stated. “I won’t be my dad. But I can have impact like they did. That’s what I’m trying to do.”Lawson coached the Blue Devils to a win over No. 14 Virginia Tech in January. Lance King/Getty ImagesWHEN LAWSON SPEAKS to her gamers, she tries to impart what she realized throughout her time on the courtroom — and the authenticity of her speeches makes them straightforward to gravitate towards. Her skill to successfully talk is rooted within the classes she realized from Summitt, who pushed her as the purpose guard and chief on the crew to be extra assertive and discover her voice. As a commentator, she honed that expertise.”Handle hard better” wasn’t the primary video posted to the Duke girls’s basketball social media pages. But it struck a chord as a result of it could possibly be utilized far past sport.When Steve Buches first noticed the video, scrolling on X, he felt as if Lawson was talking on to him. As a former Pitt soccer participant and highschool soccer coach, Buches at all times finds himself looking for out motivational movies to indicate each his children and his gamers. This one, although, felt totally different.Women’s Tournament ChallengeComplete your bracket by choosing the winner for every game of the 2024 girls’s NCAA event. Play Women’s Tournament Challenge
The Buches household had been going by vital challenges. One of his 4 kids, Stephen, was born with a genetic mutation that causes intractable epilepsy. Stephen could not stroll, speak or look after himself.Steve confirmed the video to his spouse, Amy, and to his different children, Addison (12), Michaela (10) and James (5). They adopted “Handle hard better” as their household mantra. Every morning at 6 a.m., Steve texted the total video to Addison and Michaela as a reminder earlier than they began their day. He had the phrase tattooed on the underside of his bicep — strategically positioned. Because the older Stephen obtained, the more durable it turned to elevate him out and in of his chair, and to hold him up and down the steps. No matter, Steve advised himself. Handle onerous higher.”It almost doesn’t matter about sports,” Steve stated in a telephone interview from his house in Pittsburgh. “It’s more about life for us.”Last month, the women noticed that Duke was coming to city to play Pitt. “I wish I could meet Kara Lawson” Michaela mused. They made plans to go, however that morning, Stephen had what Amy described as a “rough seizure morning.” They have been all frightened, however Amy had made a promise. She took Addison, Michaela and James to the game. The ladies wore “Handle hard better” T-shirts. Michaela made a Handle Hard Better poster. Amy, who performed basketball at Pitt, knew strategically the place to sit down so Lawson would see them.On her strategy to the locker room at halftime, Lawson smiled and waved on the ladies. Amy stated that made their day. But their day was about to get higher. After the game ended, Lawson known as Addison and Michaela over to speak and handed every one a “Handle hard better” bracelet.Kara Lawson with Addison and Michaela Buches, who introduced a “Handle hard better” signal to a Duke game. Courtesy Steve BuchesAmy’s eyes welled with tears. Afterward, Michaela stated to Steve, “Kara’s smile was so big. She was so happy to see us.”Two weeks later, after a large uptick in his seizures, Stephen died. He was 8 years outdated. On the day of the funeral, Steve watched as his children lived out the lesson he had tried to instill whereas Stephen was alive. Right there on the gravesite, his three children began to play tag, and so they made certain to make use of the flowers laid for Stephen as a strategy to embrace him of their game.”Even though Stephen is not here anymore, it was one of the first things that we thought of, that we have to handle hard better. We told the girls, ‘This is going to be really hard,'” Steve stated, preventing by tears. “But slowly over time, we will handle it better. Then to see that … it was really awesome.”Many comparable tales have reached Lawson. Jaystan Davis, who went to the identical highschool as Duke guard Ashlon Jackson, was recognized with Stage 4 colon most cancers at 19 and had to surrender his faculty basketball profession.He was about midway by his immunotherapy and chemo therapies when he noticed the “Handle hard better” message on Instagram. From that time on, he used the message to push him by. Davis proudly wore a “Handle hard better” T-shirt the day his therapies ended and he rang the bell, a practice that marks the tip of therapy, in August 2023.Davis with hospital workers carrying a “Handle hard better” shirt on the day his most cancers therapies ended. Courtesy Jaystan Davis”Handling hard better is persevering through hard times in life,” Jaystan Davis stated. “I feel that my story is a good representation of the ‘Handle hard better’ message — just through completing treatment and just being here today.”Lawson is fast to level out that not each message she will get is expounded to a life-or-death scenario. Craig Drescher, a retired commander from the 908th Airlift Wing in Montgomery, Alabama, confirmed the video throughout a month-to-month management session with the wing. The message resonated a lot with the group that when he not too long ago retired, Drescher was given a particular reward: A helicopter blade mounted on a plaque with phrases from the speech:”We all wait in life for things to get easier. It will never get easier. What happens is you handle hard better … So make yourself a person that handles hard well.”Craig Drescher, a retired commander from the 908th Airlift Wing in Montgomery, Alabama, was given a helicopter blade mounted on a plaque with phrases from Lawson’s speech when he retired. ESPNThere are different tales much like that one. A physician in Brazil wrote to Lawson to let her know she shared the message with co-workers. Teachers throughout the nation have written to inform her how they’ve integrated the message into their lesson plans. One fitness center trainer made a banner and hung it up as a each day reminder.Then there are the coaches — from basketball to soccer, softball and past — who’ve adopted the phrase as a theme for his or her sports activities season. A fast social media search reveals many have tagged Lawson with their pictures, proud to let her know simply how a lot of an impact she has made on them, their groups and their lives.Lawson acknowledged there are those that don’t know she was a basketball star earlier than the speech. There are additionally those that cease her and do not wish to discuss hoops. Only “Handle hard better.”For a lady who has completed practically all there’s to perform within the sport, maybe her newfound function is what Summitt and her dad had ready her for. Basketball and life are intertwined, however this kind of impact transcends sport boundaries.”It’s just amazing that I’ve spent my whole life in the sport of basketball, and to have a video that came from what I’ve done my whole life impact people on a greater scale is not something I ever imagined,” Lawson stated. “But it’s something that I’m embracing.”Alexandra Nolen contributed to this report.