South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley says she was ready to make history with the New York Knicks, confirming she would have accepted the franchise’s head coaching position had it been offered to her.
“I would have had to do it. Not just for me. For women. To break [that door] open,” Staley said on the Post Moves podcast with WNBA star Aliyah Boston and former WNBA great Candace Parker. “I would have had to. It’s the New York Knicks. I’m from Philly. But it’s the freaking New York Knicks.”
The Knicks instead hired Mike Brown in July, opting for the veteran coach who had previously led the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings.
The New York Knicks Hosted a Formal Interview
Staley, 55, revealed she went through a formal interview with New York’s leadership and came in fully prepared. Still, she acknowledged that her pointed questions about how the organization would handle the spotlight of hiring the NBA’s first female head coach may have altered the conversation.
“‘How, if you hired me as the first female [head] coach in the NBA, would it impact your daily job? Because it would,’” Staley recalled asking. “You’re going to be asked questions that you don’t have to answer if you’re a male coach. There’s going to be the media and all this other stuff that you have to deal with that you didn’t have to deal with and don’t have to deal with when you hire a male. That got them to thinking, ‘Maybe she’s right.’ I felt the energy change after that. So, I shot myself in the foot by… being inquisitive and asking all those darn questions.”
Other candidates interviewed included former Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins, New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego, and Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori before the Knicks finalized Brown as their choice.
Dawn Staley Brings a Hall of Fame Resume
Had she been chosen, Staley would have been the first woman to serve as a full-time NBA head coach. The Hall of Famer has already established one of the greatest coaching resumes in basketball history, first revitalizing Temple University from 2000–08 and then turning South Carolina into a powerhouse.
At Temple, she went 172–80, guiding the Owls to six NCAA tournaments and four Atlantic 10 tournament titles, becoming the winningest coach in program history. At South Carolina, she has amassed a 475–109 record (.812 winning percentage), winning national championships in 2017, 2022, and 2024 while reaching seven Final Fours in the past decade.
She is the only basketball coach in Gamecocks history with more than 300 wins and has dominated the SEC with nine regular-season titles, nine tournament championships, and a league-record 57-game conference win streak.
Staley has been named National Coach of the Year five times and SEC Coach of the Year seven times. In 2022, she became the first coach ever to beat Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer, and Kim Mulkey in the same season.
Her work extends to the international stage, where she led Team USA to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and compiled a perfect record across multiple stints as head or acting coach. She has also mentored stars such as A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, and Allisha Gray while becoming the first person to win the Naismith Award as both a player and coach.
What It Means
For Staley, the Knicks’ interview was about more than personal ambition. She said the opportunity represented a potential barrier-breaking moment for women in sports.
While Brown now leads the Knicks, her candidacy displayed how seriously NBA franchises are beginning to weigh elite women’s coaches for top positions.
“I would have had to do it,” Staley said. “It’s not just about me.”
