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What seemed like half the NBA shot down the Knicks this summer. One coach who would have taken the job: Dawn Staley.
The South Carolina legend said this week she would have taken the position if offered.
“I would have had to do it,” Staley told the Post Moves podcast. “Not just for me. For women. Just to break open that…. I would have had to. It’s the New York Knicks. I’m from Philly. But it’s the freaking New York Knicks.”
Staley confirmed that she spoke with Knicks brass after they fired Tom Thibodeau in June. New York eventually hired Mike Brown in July.
The three-time NCAA champion detailed some of her conversations with the Knicks on the podcast.
“How, if you hired me as the first female [head] coach in the NBA, would it impact your daily job?” Staley said she asked in her interview. “Because it would. 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 is known for being one of the most media-friendly coaches in the sport. The Knicks are known for the opposite approach: Owner James Dolan has kicked reporters out of concerts and banned them from press conferences, while president Leon Rose has never held a solo press conference in his tenure running the team.
Had Staley taken the Knicks job, she wouldn’t have owed South Carolina a dime. In January, South Carolina made Staley the highest-paid women’s basketball coach with a new contract that will pay her $4 million annually and increase by $250,000 each year until it ends in 2030. The contract’s total value is $25.25 million.
If Staley takes another college job before the deal expires in April 2030, she would owe South Carolina “an amount equal to the coach’s guaranteed annual compensation, pro-rated, for the remaining term of the agreement,” the contract says. But the contract explicitly says that if she leaves for a head or assistant job in the NBA or WNBA, she wouldn’t owe the school anything.
Staley was asked on the show if she’d be interested in coaching the WNBA’s new expansion team in her hometown of Philadelphia, which will begin play in 2030. She reiterated her longtime stance of only wanting to be involved in the WNBA as an owner.
“I don’t want to coach in the WNBA,” Staley said on the podcast. “I could have coached in the WNBA a long time ago. That really isn’t my passion.
“I want ownership,” she added. “I want to own. I don’t want to be a coach. Coach is just a part of the process. I want to be in the room helping to make decisions on how you put a product on the floor, how you get into the community, how you get people in the stands. That’s the sweat equity that I want. But I want that as an owner.”
Staley has entertained NBA gigs before this year. She interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers’ head coaching job in 2021 and said the organization “treated me like a real candidate” throughout the process. The Blazers ultimately hired Chauncey Billups instead.
