"Handle Hard Better"

Kara Lawson is the Head Coach of Duke University's Women's Basketball team.  She became the sixth head coach in Duke's history on July 11, 2020.  Her resume is impressive.  She played for the University of Tennessee Lady Vols under legendary Head Coach Pat Summit, one of the greatest (if not "the" greatest) college basketball coach of all-time, where she was a two-time All-American.  She continued her basketball playing career in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), winning a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a WNBA championship with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005.  After retiring from the WNBA, Lawson was an analyst for ESPN.  She began her coaching career as an assistant for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2019 (the first female basketball coach in that team's illustrious 73-year history) and coached the U.S. Women's National 3x3 basketball team to a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.  

Coach Lawson delivered an impromptu speech to her team during the summer of 2022.  A member of Duke's video team happened to be there and recorded the 49 second speech and posted it on the Duke women's basketball social media page.  It's gone viral with over 1 million views for a reason - it's a great speech!  She says that we often wait for life to get easier and cautions us that "Life doesn't get any easier.  We just handle hard better."  It's a great speech and one that you should definitely watch!  Part of our growth and development as individuals is continuing to live through our struggles.  We learn, as Coach Lawson says, to "handle hard better."