Whereas her interview was professional, Daybreak Staley doesn’t suppose that the NBA is definitely prepared for a lady to be a head coach within the league.
The longtime South Carolina head coach truly interviewed for a similar opening with the New York Knicks earlier this offseason when the franchise parted with Tom Thibodeau. The Knicks ended up hiring Mike Brown. It’s unclear how far Staley truly obtained alongside within the course of, however she wasn’t thought of a finalist for the job.
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Now wanting again on the method, she thinks that the league as a complete simply is not prepared to rent a girl.
“No, I don’t [believe it will happen in my lifetime],” Staley stated on Tuesday, by way of ESPN’s Myron Medcalf. “And I hope I’m improper.”
Staley has been at South Carolina since 2008, and he or she’s rapidly turned this system right into a ladies’s basketball powerhouse. She’s led the Gamecocks to 9 SEC event and common season titles, seven Remaining 4 appearances and three NCAA championships — most just lately in 2024. They’ve been to the Remaining 4 5 straight instances, and the nationwide championship sport in three of the final 4 years.
Staley is the highest-paid coach in ladies’s school basketball, too. She signed an extension by means of the 2029-30 season earlier this 12 months that’s price round $25.5 million. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2013, too.
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The Gamecocks are ranked No. 2 within the Related Press’ preseason ballot this fall, despite the fact that star Chloe Kitts will miss your complete season with a torn ACL.
Staley isn’t the primary lady to interview for a head teaching job within the NBA. Former San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon interviewed for jobs a number of instances, and he or she was a finalist for the Portland Path Blazers opening in 2021, earlier than she finally landed with the Las Vegas Aces. However as no lady has gotten over that hill but, Staley is aware of the criticism she would have confronted within the Knicks position would have been extremely extreme.
“If the Knicks have a five-game shedding streak, it isn’t going to be in regards to the shedding streak,” Staley stated. “It may be about being a feminine coach. So that you as a company, a franchise, you must be ready for and powerful sufficient to disregard these varieties of cases when you are going to look to rent a feminine coach.”
Although Staley revealed earlier this 12 months that she would have taken the Knicks job have been it supplied to her, she appears very content material at South Carolina. She’s additionally greater than keen to assist every other ladies within the sport sooner or later, despite the fact that she’s skeptical it’s going to ever occur.
“If there’s any individual that’s fascinated about understanding and fascinated about being the primary feminine NBA coach, I’ve obtained all the knowledge,” she stated. “Come see me, as a result of I am going to get you ready for the interview.
“And if there are NBA franchises which can be fascinated about hiring a feminine, I am right here, too, as a result of you have to be able to take that on and all of the issues that it comes with as a result of it isn’t nearly hiring the primary feminine coach.”
