Daybreak Staley was prepared for the problem of the NBA and to go away South Carolina behind, the Gamecocks’ head coach mentioned this week.
Chatting with the “Publish Strikes” podcast with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston, Staley mentioned that had she been provided the New York Knicks head teaching job, she would have felt like she “needed to do it.”
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“If the Knicks would have provided me the job, I might have needed to do it. Not only for me, it is for girls. Simply to interrupt open [that door],” Staley mentioned. “I might have needed to. It’s the New York Knicks and I’m from Philly. But it surely’s the freaking New York Knicks.”
Based on The Athletic, Staley impressed Knicks executives throughout her interview, however was not thought of a finalist for the job to interchange Tom Thibodeau. The staff ended up hiring Mike Brown after talking to a pool of candidates together with ex-head coaches James Borrego and Taylor Jenkins, in addition to Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, amongst others.
Staley famous that she would not take a job simply because it was within the NBA. The historical past of the Knicks was an enormous consider why she accepted the invitation to speak in regards to the open place. What she felt damage her within the dialogue, and adjusted the vitality within the room, had been her pointed questions on what hiring a feminine head coach would imply for the group going ahead.
“Properly, I had a sequence of questions that I requested them,” Staley mentioned. “No. 1 was: Why was I within the candidate pool? I mentioned, ‘Has the New York Knicks group, in its historical past, ever had what you’re searching for? They wished a staff. They wished inclusiveness with administration, coaches and everybody. They wished it to really feel like a intently knit franchise. The reply was actually ‘no.’ If you happen to don’t rent anybody totally different, how are you going to get that? That was No. 1.
“How, in case you employed me as the primary feminine [head] coach within the NBA, would it not influence your day by day job? As a result of it will,” Staley mentioned. “You’re going to be requested questions that you simply don’t need to reply in case you’re a male coach. There’s going to be the media and all this different stuff that you must cope with that you simply didn’t need to cope with and don’t need to cope with whenever you rent a male. That bought them to considering, ‘Perhaps she’s proper.’”
Staley, 55, has been South Carolina’s ladies’s head coach since 2008. She is the highest-paid coach in ladies’s school basketball after signing an extension by way of the 2029-30 season in January. The deal begins with an annual wage of $4 million and can develop by $250,000 every year. In whole, the deal — which additionally features a $500,000 signing bonus — is value round $25.5 million.
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Since taking up this system, Staley has led the Gamecocks to 9 SEC event titles, 9 SEC regular-season titles and 7 Ultimate 4 appearances. She is a four-time Naismith Coach of the 12 months and a seven-time SEC Coach of the 12 months.
Staley has led South Carolina to 3 NCAA championships (2017, 2022, 2024), which is tied for third all time in ladies’s school basketball.
