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South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley has revealed she interviewed with the New York Knicks for the head coaching job over the summer and would have taken it if offered.
Staley is considered one of the best basketball coaches on the planet, regardless of what team she coaches, with the benchmark move of having a woman leading an NBA team being a dream most believe should could handle.
The Knicks parted with Tom Thibodeau in June after making the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000, and eventually hired Mike Brown. The landmark hire was ready to jump too.
'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 Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston and WNBA legend 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.'
Brown was hired in early July, having been a head coach for the Sacramento Kings, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.
Dawn Staley said she interviewed with the New York Knicks for their head coaching job
Staley said if she was offered the Knicks job, she would have left South Carolina basketball
Staley, 55, is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and has won three national titles with the Gamecocks.
The former WNBA star said she was prepared for her interview and wondered he she hurt her chances of getting the job by asking about the enormity of her coming to Madison Square Garden.
'How, if you hired me as the first female [head] coach in the NBA, would it impact your daily job? Because it would,' Staley said of her question to New York's leadership during her interview. she asked during her interview with the Knicks.
'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.'
Staley has been the Gamecocks coach since 2008 and amassed a 475-110 record from the bench. South Carolina has reached the Women's Final Four every year since 2021.
Also rejected by the Knicks in lieu of hiring Brown were former Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins, Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, and Pelicans assistant James Borrego.
