Dawn Staley on why she'd be a successful NBA coach one day

“I think I could be successful with whatever I apply myself to."

Dawn Staley’s program at South Carolina is coming off one of the most dominant seasons in women’s college basketball history, going 35-2 and winning a national title with relative ease. While Staley is firmly entrenched in Columbia, she wasn’t shy about how she’d fare as an NBA head coach in a recent interview with Mackenzie Salmon.

“I think I could be successful with whatever I apply myself to,” Staley said. “The discipline that I have, and being successful , are the same things that I would do if I was put in that situation.”

Staley signed a seven-year, $22.4 million contract with South Carolina prior to the 2021-22 season, making her the second-highest paid coach in women’s college basketball. She’s not going anywhere anytime soon, but she did say she sees no reason why women couldn’t coach men’s basketball at the highest level. 

“I don’t think there’s a huge difference in coaching because it’s people. You’re coaching people,” Staley said. “The game strategy, tactics, schemes, all of that, can be learned. You really can’t learn to relate to people.

“Athletes want to win. They want to get better. They want relationships, they want someone to believe in them and they wanna believe in people. And once you have that dynamic … you can be truly successful.”

Watch the full interview: