CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dawn Staley, the star of this week’s episode of “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” has had one of the most sensational careers in women’s basketball history.
Currently the head women’s basketball coach at South Carolina, where she has directed the team since 2008, Staley’s Gamecock squads won national titles in both 2017 and 2022 and has led the nation in women’s basketball attendance for eight years in a row. Under Staley, South Carolina has also made the Final Four in four of the past seven NCAA Tournaments.
Before her standout coaching career, Staley, 52, was one of the best point guards to ever play the women’s game. At Virginia, the Philadelphia native led the Cavaliers to three Final Four appearances, made All-American three times and was the ACC Player of the Year in both 1991 and 1992. She was a three-time WNBA All-Star while playing for the Charlotte Sting from 1999-2005 and won three Olympic gold medals as a player.
Staley was the first former Naismith Player of the Year to earn the Naismith Coach of the Year award. Her South Carolina women’s team will be favored to repeat as national champions during the 2022-23 season.
This interview, conducted at Staley’s office in Columbia, S.C., has been edited for clarity and brevity and was closely supervised by Champ, Staley’s 5-year-old Havanese pooch.
— Scott Fowler: I covered the WNBA when the Charlotte Sting was here, and you were one of that team’s stars. I particularly remember the 2001 season where the Sting advanced all the way to the championship game. But there were some rough moments certainly for that franchise (which folded after the 2006 season). What do you remember most about your years with the Sting?
— Dawn Staley: I only remember great times. The friendships, the locker room talk, the dinners, the traveling and just really enjoying the people that I was on the team with. We oftentimes reminisce. ... It’s not a lot about basketball, but when we do talk about basketball, we do talk about starting 1-10 (in 2001), and then going all the way to the WNBA championship series.
— SF: A lot of people at this point may have forgotten how great of a player you were. Do you believe that you are a better basketball player or basketball coach?
— DS: I’m probably a better coach. Because I would say I’ve always been a coach even when I was playing. Just my (point guard) position demands for me to do coaching-type things. And I think I utilized my playing days to be a better coach. ... When I was a player, I only got a chance to impact and be impacted by a small group of people on a team.
As a coach now I get to impact my current players, my former players, the entire women’s basketball community. So I think my impact is a little bit bigger. And my gratitude is a lot larger because I get to connect with so many different people.
— SF: You’ve tried very intentionally to elevate women’s basketball as a sport. And one of the most public examples was what you did with the 2017 national championship net. Tell me about that.
— DS: Two years before we won our national championship in 2017, Carolyn Peck, who was the first Black female coach to win a national championship in 1999 (at Purdue), was an analyst doing some of our games. And she pulled me to the side once at shootaround, and told me the story about how one of her teammates gave her a piece of her national championship net. ... And she thought that paying it forward in this way, and giving me a piece of her 1999 national championship net, would be the perfect way to show how it impacted her and how she was able to give back.
And she said, “Once you win your national championship, I just want you to return it to me, and then pay it forward to someone else. Another coach.”
But we could never come to a good conclusion on who we would bestow it on (after South Carolina’s 2017 national title). ... And then I just thought about sharing it with other Black coaches on the Division I level, because I know their struggle, and I know what that little piece of nylon, what hope it brought to them.
I knew that not every one of them would win the national championship. But their national championship is maybe being a part of a first-generation graduate on their team. Maybe they needed some hope in everyday life. So I thought it was a great connection piece for Black coaches.
— SF: And so you sent pieces of the net to dozens of Division I Black female head women’s basketball coaches?
— DS: About 70. And I may have missed one or two, and they were quick to remind me of that. I need to keep cutting.
— SF: So what are you going to do with the 2022 net — have you decided yet?
— DS: I have. I’m going to give it to Black journalists, because their journey is similar. There are not a lot of Black journalists in this space, and I want to lend some hope. Because if they love up on this space like I love up on basketball, the sky’s the limit. Sometimes you just need a little push every now and then to keep going, even when the odds are stacked against you.
— SF: While you were still playing in the WNBA in Charlotte, you became the women’s basketball head coach at Temple. That’s remarkable, and I don’t understand how you did it. You were Temple’s head coach (from 2000-08) and a full-time WNBA player.
— DS: I wanted to do it, and I think when people want to do something they prioritize. I’m not one that really has a huge social life. ... It’s easy once you have people around you that really understand what you’re trying to do. And Temple wanted to take that chance on me. ... Obviously, they saw something in me that I probably didn’t see in myself. … So we just hired some great people that understood, and were able to take care of, things when I was away for four or five months of the year. And instead of me having to go out on the road to recruit, we’d always say, “Come see our coach playing in the WNBA,” because that’s ultimately what they wanted to do.
— SF: How has your style as a coach changed from your time at Temple to the way you currently coach at South Carolina, more than 20 years later?
— DS: Oh, my former players from Temple, they call me “Charmin.” They think I’m soft now.
— SF: Are you?
— DS: Well, I had a lot of energy when I was 30 years old. But in any profession, you’re going to evolve. The core principle of who I am as a coach is still the same. It’s just how I deal with people is a little bit different. You know, I was probably less censored in my younger years. Now I’m more censored. ... And I also have to be conscious of parents. … My parents didn’t mind me failing, because they knew there are so many life lessons packed into that.
Parents nowadays? They don’t want their children to fail. ... But I often tell my players that I love them enough to allow them to fail. And I tell them don’t measure me by how your parents love you. Because I have a different type of love. I’ve got a tough love. I have a way of showing you love that will hopefully create longevity, in basketball and in life. Because it’s not going to be perfect.
— SF: You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, right?
— DS: Yes, you’ve got to embrace it. I don’t like everything about my job.
— SF: Like what?
— DS: I don’t like recruiting because. ... I can’t fluff it up.
— SF: You’re honest. You’ve always been that way.
— DS: Yeah, I’ll give you the worst-case scenario, and a lot of times people don’t want to hear that. They want to hear the fluff. ... It’s hard to say that without bursting someone’s dream, but I’ve gotta give it to ‘em, because it could very well be what happens.
— SF: Speaking of recruiting, I wrote a column a couple of months ago when the Charlotte Hornets were looking for a new head coach.
— DS: I read that.
— SF: My theory was that Dawn Staley would be the perfect next coach for the Charlotte Hornets. I know you’ve signed an enormous contract here, and I wasn’t trying to lure you away. ... But I think you could do a great job. And you don’t recruit in the NBA, except for free agents. ... Same in the WNBA. Does the professional game interest you?
— DS: No, it never has and I don’t know why because I’m one that I looks for the next challenge. But to me, that isn’t a challenge for me. Even when I was playing in the WNBA, I never wanted to be (former Charlotte Sting head coach) Anne Donovan. ... My passion is for young people. But I’m getting older. … And from an NBA standpoint, it takes a long time to be successful. ... I’m not afraid of it at all (though) … I know basketball. I don’t think basketball changes a whole lot.
— SF: You’re 52 now. How long do you see yourself coaching?
— DS:I don’t see myself (coaching) at 60.
— SF: Really?
— DS: Yeah. But I didn’t see myself coaching (at all), and this is my 23rd year. I am enjoying it. I don’t see myself coaching at 60, but if I get some more (recruiting) classes like we’ve had, then the job is a little easier… I don’t have to deal with knuckleheads…. The teams that I’ve had over the past couple of years, they just want to win. They just want to be great. That is probably the perfect scenario for me. … So if our assistant coaches can get some more No. 1 recruiting classes, I might stick around (laughs).
— SF: Your dog Champ came into your life after the national championship in 2017. What would he think about getting another dog in the Staley household to celebrate the 2022 national title team?
— DS: Champ says: “Hard no. It’s a hard no.” I do think another dog would would help him and shape him a little bit better — he suffers from the only-child syndrome. But I don’t think he’s willing to give up his space in the household or on the bed at night.
— SF: Did you grow up with dogs?
— DS: No, I don’t even like dogs. I just like Champ.
— SF: Does he understand that he’s a dog?
— DS: No, not at all. ... He goes to a lot of places and honestly people don’t see me anymore. They just gravitate toward Champ. ... I don’t know what my life was like before him. Seriously.
