Kara Marie Lawson was born on 14 February 1981, in Alexandria, Virginia USA, and is a professional basketball player, best known for playing in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), and as a television analyst for ESPN. She plays as a shooting guard, but all of her efforts have helped put her net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Kara Lawson? As of early-2017, sources estimate a net worth that is at $1 million, mostly earned through a successful career in basketball. She won the gold medal with the US team at the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing, China. As she continues her career, it is expected that her wealth will also continue to increase.
Kara Lawson Net Worth $1 million
Kara attended Sidwell Friends School, and later transferred to West Springfield High School, where she played for the school’s soccer and basketball teams. She became part of the 1999 WBCA High School All-America Game, earning MVP honors, and was also named as a WBCA All-American. After matriculating, she attended the University of Tennessee studying finance, and played for the school’s basketball team, the Lady Vols, before graduating in 2003. During her senior year, she won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award which was given to her by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
In 2003, Kara joined the WNBA Draft, and was selected as the fifth overall pick by the Detroit Shock, but just a few days later she was traded to the Sacramento Monarchs. She would perform well and would help the Monarchs win the championship two years later. In her subsequent WNBA career, she started to become more involved with the commentary team of various sports broadcasting networks, doing commentaries for women’s and men’s college basketball games. In 2010 the Monarchs folded, and Lawson became a free agent, signing a three-year deal with the Connecticut Sun, helping to increase her net worth further. In 2014, she was traded to the Washington Mystics.
Aside from playing in the WNBA, Lawson was a part of the USA team during the 2001 World University Games. She became instrumental in helping the team to reach medal contention, including scoring 25 points against Japan. The team made it to the quarterfinals, and would win a lot of hard fought games to get the gold medal against the host team China. She finished the event as the third leading scorer, and led the team in assists as well as steals. In 2008, she joined the USA women’s national basketball team for the Summer Olympics. She helped the team once again get the gold medal, scoring a perfect 5-5 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line. In 2009, she joined the National Team training camp and competed in the UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational.
Unfortunately, she didn’t make it to the final roster for the 2012 Olympics.
Kara now spends a lot of time as part of ESPN, covering the NBA and college basketball games. She is the first woman to work as a nationwide broadcast analyst covering NBA games.
For her personal life, it is known that Lawson married Damien Barling in 2008. She is an advocate of personal health and fitness, and participated in the Let’s Move Campaign by Michelle Obama. She also became a volunteer for the American Cancer Society, Alzheimer’s Association, and Race for the Cure.
