South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said Tuesday that she’s unconvinced that the NBA will hire a female coach in her lifetime. The statement came less than six months after she interviewed for the open role with the New York Knicks.
The Knicks ultimately hired Mike Brown to replace Tom Thibodeau. Staley, a three-time national champion coach who was a six-time All-Star as a WNBA player, remained in the college ranks.
“No, I don’t,” Staley said during Tuesday’s SEC media day when asked if she expected to see a female NBA head coach in her lifetime. “And I hope I’m wrong.”
The 55-year-old said she has a strong relationship with New York’s front office and was ready to accept the role — and the constant media scrutiny — if the Knicks offered it to her.
“If the Knicks have a five-game losing streak, it’s not going to be about the losing streak,” she said. “It’s going to be about being a female coach. So you, as an organization, a franchise, you have to be prepared for and strong enough to ignore those types of instances when you’re going to look to hire a female coach.”
In the past 10 years, 14 different women have held assistant coaching jobs in the NBA. Becky Hammon, a former San Antonio Spurs assistant who just won her third title with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, was closest to landing a top job.
In 2020, following the ejection of then-coach Gregg Popovich, Hammon assumed the role of acting head coach for the Spurs. She had also served as the Spurs’ Summer League coach in 2015. Though she was a finalist in the Portland Trail Blazers’ coaching search in 2021, the job ultimately went to former All-Star Chauncey Billups.
Staley is offering to help the next woman prepare for the NBA coaching carousel.
“If there is somebody that is interested in knowing and interested in being the first female NBA coach, I’ve got all the information,” she said. “Come see me, because I’ll get you prepared for the interview.”