Dawn Staley Says NBA ‘Not Ready' for Women Head Coaches - Here's Why
Becky Hammon became the first woman to serve as head coach in an NBA regular-season game when filling in for then-San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich after his second-quarter ejection in December 2020.
For a while, there was growing buzz that Hammon would become the first woman hired as an NBA head coach due to her reputation on Popovich’s staff. Instead, Hammon became the Las Vegas Aces head coach in 2022 and has led the Aces to three WNBA championships in four years.
“It’s a substantial moment,” Hammon said after filling in for Pop in December 2020.
According to South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, the NBA is several substantial moments away from employing a woman as a head coach full-time.
“They’re not ready,” Staley told Craig Melvin on his “Glass Half Full” podcast when discussing the interview process she went through for the New York Knicks head coaching job. “No NBA team is ready for a female coach right now. Not one.”
Staley interviewed for the Knicks’ open head coaching job last summer, and she interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers’ head coaching job during the 2021 offseason.
Staley explained further:
“Culturally, you have to prepare for it. Culturally. Culturally. Because I did ask questions [of the Knicks organization], like, ‘How would you hiring me impact your job on a daily basis?’ Because it would. It would. It would. It would impact the media. It would impact the owner. ‘Why would you do such a thing?’ They have to take on more than the norm if they hire a male.
You have to prepare your franchise for that. Not just your players. Of course, they have to be in agreement that this is the best thing for the franchise. The GM is gonna be asked questions that they’ve never been asked before.”
Staley noted that it would be “great” for a woman to head up an NBA franchise because “having a woman’s touch around any franchise is gonna help.”
Earlier in their conversation, Melvin asked Staley whether she’d ever consider leaving college to coach in the WNBA. That was a hard no, and Melvin suspected that her openness to the NBA rather than the WNBA comes from the fact that she “enjoys having to prove yourself.” Staley said, “Yes, I do.”
That checks out with Staley’s coaching origins.
Staley was a Hall of Fame guard in the WNBA and for the U.S. women’s national team. She won three Olympic gold medals and was a five-time WNBA All-Star while concurrently coaching at Temple University. With Melvin, Staley admitted that the only reason she took the head coaching job at Temple was to prove someone wrong.
“I never wanted to be a coach,” Staley said. “Like, ever. Coaching was not in my DNA until the moment I took the job at Temple because I was challenged to take the job. The late, great AD at Temple at the time, Dave O’Brien, asked me two questions during an interview that I didn’t know I was being interviewed for.”
O’Brien’s two questions were:
Can you lead?
Can you turn the Temple women’s basketball program around?
“I’m looking around, like, ‘Is that a challenge?'” Staley said. “Does he really know me, know me? That I’m drawn to challenges? Craig, I took the job two weeks later, and now, it’s 25 years later.”
Staley coached at Temple from 2000 to 2008, going 172-80 and leading the Owls to six women’s NCAA Tournament appearances. Then, Staley departed for South Carolina and turned that program into a juggernaut.
Staley has gone 511-114 over 18 seasons, and South Carolina has reached five national championship games since 2017, winning three. Staley’s Gamecocks have reached the Final Four in each of the last six years. Staley has a statue in Columbia, South Carolina.
When Melvin asked whether Staley would leave South Carolina “if the right NBA team came along,” she said, “Here’s what I’m doing, Craig. I’m putting it out there so NBA franchises can get ready for a female coach. I might not be the one, but I’m letting people know that you have to prepare if you’re gonna hire a female coach.”
Staley is more than prepared if the call ever comes.
Watch Melvin and Staley’s full conversation below.
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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 4:54 PM.