Dawn Staley's success at South Carolina has been impossible to ignore for years. Building a championship-winning program that has sent All-Star players like A'ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston to the WNBA put the basketball world on notice -- including the NBA's New York Knicks.
The Knicks interviewed Staley earlier this summer as part of a wide-ranging search to replace the fired Tom Thibodeau. Ultimately, New York opted to hire Mike Brown as its next head coach, and the wait goes on for the first female head coach to roam an NBA sideline.
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Boston and WNBA legend Candace Parker recently interviewed Staley on their Post Moves podcast, the newest episode of which dropped Wednesday. They asked Staley how close she came to taking the Knicks job, and the three-time national champion admitted that she "would have had to" accept the gig if it had been offered.
Dawn Staley speaks on coaching in the NBA, saying “if the Knicks would have offered me the job, I would have had to do it.” 👀 pic.twitter.com/BnBGEskmNx
— Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston (@PostMovesShow) August 27, 2025
But Staley never made it that far, and she believes that two questions cost her an NBA opportunity.
"One was, 'For who they were looking for, for why I was in the candidate pool, if I was so attractive, has the New York Knicks organization, in its history, ever had what you're looking for?'" Staley recalled. "They wanted a team, they wanted inclusiveness with management and the coaches. And the answer was really 'no.'
"And then my other question was, 'How, if you hired me as the first female coach in the NBA, how would it impact your daily job?' And that really got them to thinking about 's--, maybe she's right.' And I felt the energy change after that."
Instead, Staley will stay at South Carolina, where the four-time National Coach of the Year has a contract to 2030 -- and where she will seek her fourth national title as the Gamecocks' head coach in 2026.
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