The first woman to be an NBA head coach? Why not Staley?

The heights South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley reaches seem to rise with each passing year.

She led her team to the first national title in program history this year, following a run of firsts through her career in Columbia. In 2018, she’ll be at the helm of the United States Olympic women’s basketball team, which is looking for a seventh consecutive gold medal.

Could she find her way to another first: the first female head coach in the NBA?

Through the Gamecocks’ title run, the topic came up. Staley said perhaps down the road she’d like to do something like that, but it’s not on her radar now.

And for that barrier to fall, there needs to be something important.

“Opportunity,” Staley said. “Basketball is basketball. It doesn’t have a gender. It has a mind. It has an approach. It has a willingness. Given the opportunity, women can excel in this game.

“As you can see. Becky Hammon is doing a great job. You need more people like coach (Gregg) Popovich to give them opportunities to learn, to grow, and to embrace it.”

Hammon is the former WNBA All-Star and Olympian who joined the San Antonio Spurs’ coaching staff last offseason. She became the second woman to be part of an NBA staff and the first in a full-time role.

To find Hammon’s predecessor, one only needs to look to Staley’s staff.

Gamecocks assistant Lisa Boyer was an assistant with the WNBA’s Cleveland Rockers when she was sitting in the gym for John Lucas’ Cleveland Cavaliers’ first practice of the 2001-02 season.

“He’s working the stands, he’s coming up, he’s talking to people,” Boyer said. “And he knew who I was, and he’s like, ‘Coach, come on down, come on down.’ So I’m like, ‘OK.’ I followed him down. He’s like, ‘Come out on the court.’ One thing led to the other, and he said, ‘Help, be out here with us.’ ”

When things wrapped up, Lucas wasn’t finished.

“He said, ‘Practice is again at 3 p.m., are you going to be here?’ ” Boyer said. “And I kind of looked at him, I said, ‘Sure, I’ll come back.’ ”

She came for the rest of the season, serving as a volunteer assistant coach. She didn’t travel with the team, but she ran drills at practices, even suggested a few new ones for Lucas, tracked stats during games and worked hands-on with guards and bigs alike.

She said she was welcomed into that locker room. The players were professionals, treated her like any other coach. She liked to work from the sidelines, but Lucas prodded and cajoled her to get right in the middle of things on the floor (Boyer said it was a reminder how big and fast players are in the NBA).

She came away with a deep appreciation for the experience, and thinking about the step Hammon took, Boyer said it comes back to opportunities and people seeing things in on a different wavelength from gender.

“You’re talking about John Lucas and Popovich, who are basketball purists,” Boyer said. “They don’t care. They just want people around them that have some excitement and have some knowledge and want to learn about the game and want to give back to the game. I’m so happy for Becky, but it’s hat’s off for Popovich. He’s been to the pinnacle, he’s done it all, and like I said, he just wants people around him who are going to help him and his team get better.”

What path will the first female NBA head coach take? It might be a matter of an assistant such as Hammon working her way up, becoming a known commodity.

Staley will likely never fit that bill, as an NBA assistant job is probably a step down from running one of the top college programs in the country. But there could be value in a big name, especially with a national title in hand and a gold medal (she won three as a player).

“I can see the pathway to both of those things happening,” Boyer said. “When you look at a typical NBA male (coach). Most of those guys have been assistants. Most of them. … So that’s the more traditional way.

“But I also see where they could potentially take somebody that ‘has a name,’ comes in and already has a reputation. I can see that as well. But it’s going to take an owner who has that foresight and has that confidence in whoever he hires.”

Would Staley want to have that role?

“Way down the line, maybe,” Staley said. “I want to be the best in my profession. If that’s crossing gender lines and going to the NBA, why not? I’m here to grow.”

This story was originally published April 10, 2017 at 6:14 PM with the headline "The first woman to be an NBA head coach? Why not Staley?."