Oct 14, 2025; Birmingham, AL, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley talks with the media during SEC Media Days at Grand Bohemian Hotel. Vasha Hunt Imagn Images
Dawn Staley has been asked several times over the last few years if she would ever entertain becoming an NBA head coach.
And each time it’s been asked her answer has been some variation of “no.”
That was the case when she was, once again, asked how much interest or desire she has to be the NBA’s first woman head coach during the SEC’s Tip Off basketball media event in Birmingham, Alabama on Tuesday.
“Not really a whole lot,” Staley said.
The question was prompted by Staley’s revelation this summer that she interviewed for the New York Knicks’ vacant head coaching position.
In August, Staley told the “Post Moves” podcast — hosted by Gamecock great Aliyah Boston and WNBA legend Candace Parker — that she would’ve taken the Knicks job if it had been offered.
“Not just for me, it’s for women,” Staley said.
University of South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley cuts the net after The Gamecocks beat Duke to advance to the Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham on Sunday, March 30, 2025. Tracy Glantz tglantz@thestate.com
Staley wants to help others: ‘I got all the information’
The interview with the Knicks wasn’t Staley’s first with an NBA team. In 2021, she interviewed with the Portland Trail Blazers about their head coaching vacancy.
It makes sense Staley has received professional interest. South Carolina has won 475 games under Staley, and she’s turned the program into a perennial contender with nine SEC tournament titles and three national titles during her tenure. She also has deep ties to USA Basketball as a former national team player and coach.
On Tuesday, Staley said one reason she took the interview with the Knicks was because of her long-standing relationship with the team’s president, Leon Rose. Staley said it was a “real interview” but she now seems to be more interested in preparing whoever the first to break through that barrier may be.
“If there’s somebody that is interested in knowing and interested in being the first female NBA coach or such, I got all the information,” Staley said. “Come see me because I’ll get you prepared for the interview.”
“If there are NBA franchises that are interested in hiring a female, I’m here, too, because you got to be ready to take on that and all the things that it comes with, because it’s not just hiring the first female coach.”
Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon Ian Maule Getty Images
Staley pointed out that if she were coaching the Knicks and the team went on a five-game losing streak, the narrative likely would be less about the Knicks and more about the fact she was a female coach.
Staley and Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon (who had NBA head coaching interviews as a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach before taking a WNBA job in 2022) are generally regarded as the two women who’ve been the closest to becoming head coach of one of the NBA’s 30 franchises.
Staley has a unique contract clause in her latest deal with USC (signed in January 2025) in which she owes the university no buyout money if she leaves to take a professional basketball head coaching job (NBA or WNBA).
Does Staley, 55, think a woman will be hired as an NBA head coach in her lifetime?
“I don’t,” Staley said. “And I hope I’m wrong.”