“I have several opportunities, there’s no better place to work.” That was Dawn Staley speaking with Craig Melvin on the April 14 episode of his Glass Half Full podcast. She has been the Gamecocks head coach for around 18 years now. And as she revealed, it wasn’t for lack of options. For her, there’s just no better place to work or live than South Carolina.

Even the WNBA is not an exception for Staley. And she was quite blunt about that when Melvin asked if would even entertain that conversation at least. “Not one ounce, not WNBA,” she said. And of course, she has gone on record for saying that her calling is to be a “dream merchant” for young athletes. That is developing college players and preparing them for the pros. So, stepping into the WNBA would go against that principle, or as she calls it, her calling.

However, as it appears, exceptions can still be made, but only for the NBA. Answering whether she would take a call from an NBA team, Staley said, “I entertained the Knicks job. I did. I came up there, I interviewed, I sat with Leon and Wes, and with the whole Knicks organization.” As she explained, she went through the process like every other candidate for the New York Knicks job. But in the end, she did not get the role.

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That was actually not the first time Dawn Staley interviewed for an NBA coaching role. In 2021, she also went through the process with the Portland Trail Blazers, a job that ultimately went to Chauncey Billups. Beyond that, she has also been linked with the Charlotte Hornets and the Washington Wizards, although she wasn’t particularly interested in taking those roles.

Dawn Staley’s résumé is, of course, stacked. With South Carolina, she has won three national championships, nine SEC tournament titles, 10 SEC regular-season championships, and a long list of other honors. Individually, she’s a four-time Naismith, WBCA, and USBWA Coach of the Year, among other accolades. So it wouldn’t be accurate to suggest that missing out on the Knicks or Trail Blazers roles had anything to do with a lack of competence or experience.

For Staley, however, the NBA is not quite ready yet to go that route. “They are not ready,” she said. “You have to prepare for it. You can’t just interview, culturally, you have to prepare for it.” And as she explained, hiring a female head coach would impact an NBA franchise differently than usual.

“It would impact the media, the owner… they would have to take on more than the norm. The team, the coach, and the general managers are going to be asked different questions than they’ve ever been asked.” In her view, it’s something the entire franchise must be ready for, not just the players.

And of course, the impact would also be positive. In fact, Staley believes having a woman lead an NBA team would be a positive step forward. And she’s excited by the prospect of actually being one. In fact, as she explained, she actually enjoyed interviewing for the roles, especially the Knicks job. 

To date, there has still not been a full-time female head coach in the NBA. Sure, women have held assistant roles across the league’s history, but that final barrier remains. Could Dawn Staley be the one to eventually break it?

Dawn Staley hopes to set the stage for the first female NBA head coach

So far, Dawn Staley has interviewed for two NBA head coaching roles: the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers. However, beyond simply trying to land one of those jobs, something she has admitted she’s excited about, Staley sees her efforts as part of a bigger purpose. For her, it’s about laying the groundwork for the moment an NBA franchise eventually hires a woman as head coach.

Still speaking with Craig Melvin on his Glass Half Full podcast, she said, “I’m putting it out there so NBA franchises can get ready for a female coach. I might not be the one, but I’m letting people know that you have to prepare if you’re going to hire a female coach.” For Staley, her efforts now are also toward potential NBA teams, making them understand the need to truly prepare for that transition. 

As she explained, that preparation is essential. “You can’t just hire the coach and then prepare, because it’ll be a rocky road for everybody.” And of course, hiring a woman to lead an NBA team would mark a clear paradigm shift, one that would require adjustment across the board. In Staley’s words, “they’re going to have to deal with things that they don’t normally have to deal with.”

And of course, there are indeed several concrete examples of that. When Becky Hammon became an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, reporters repeatedly questioned how she would handle the men’s locker room. Although Hammon dismissed it as a “silly question,” it exposed a deeper issue: franchises had not even considered providing private changing spaces for female staff. 

But then, there have, however, been small signs of proactive preparation. Most notably, Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks. In 2016, they explicitly built a separate, dedicated locker and shower facility for women operations personnel into their new practice facility. They stated they did this specifically to prepare for the eventual day they would hire a female coach. 

Perhaps Dawn Staley’s message will further accelerate that preparation. Because, inevitably, a day will come when we will see a woman as head coach of an NBA team.