Dawn Staley hasn’t closed door on coaching Team USA again — at least not yet
Dawn Staley sounded sure of her decision to step away from USA Basketball after leading Team USA to its seventh consecutive gold medal in Olympic 5-on-5 women’s basketball.
“Our country has a lot of great coaches that can get the job done,” she told reporters back in Tokyo. “Me, being a part of I believe six, that’s enough. I’m full, I’m full.”
Now settled back in the United States, Staley isn’t as certain as she was 10 days ago.
“You ask a woman, post-giving birth, does she want to have another baby? Her immediate response is no,” Staley said. “But then, you see how much that baby gives you so much joy, you start thinking about it. … I feel a bit differently now.”
Staley said Team USA basketball has always been a big part of her life, and she’s made her name synonymous with U.S. dominance in women’s basketball on the global stage.
Staley has played a role in six Olympic golds — three as a player, two as an assistant coach and the latest as head coach. She was named head coach of the U.S. women’s national team in 2017 and left with a flawless 45-0 record.
Even after returning to coach in her 14th season at South Carolina, she still hasn’t processed the magnitude of her accomplishments with Team USA.
“The pressure was so thick that you don’t want to shortchange that moment,” Staley said. “If we had to go back to ‘96, I was a player that was a participant, just really into the games and had a real say in some outcomes. As a coach, you do have some say — very little — but it’s up to the players.”
Staley said she has decompressed from some of the stress that came with coaching this year’s U.S. team that defeated all of its opponents by an average margin of 16 points in Tokyo, which is why she’s not as absolute about stepping away from the helm right now.
But this isn’t to say she’s certainly coming back to coach in Paris 2024.
Staley fully supports the appointment of Cheryl Reeve, an assistant coach in Team USA’s most recent gold medal victory and head coach of the WNBA Minnesota Lynx, as the next head coach of the U.S. women’s 5-on-5 national team.
“She’s been around the game, she understands it,” Staley said. “Her basketball mind is unmatched. She has a really good understanding of how to coach pros.”
One thing is certain: Staley wouldn’t take a job coaching 3-on-3 basketball, which debuted in Tokyo and featured Gamecock alum Allisha Gray, who won gold with Team USA.
“I’m a 5-on-5 girl,” Staley said.
So yes, Staley could be up to the challenge again. Reeve told Staley she was surprised to hear that Staley was “full” after Tokyo, but Staley knows Reeve is equipped, should she be the next choice to lead Team USA.
“I’m gonna leave it as if Cheryl is the one, she’s the one,” Staley said. “If they choose to go in a different direction and come back here, I’ve never turned USA Basketball down.”
