Dawn Staley would've left South Carolina for New York Knicks head coaching job: 'I would have had to do it'

South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley would’ve left her post for the New York Knicks if offered. Staley revealed she interviewed for the Knicks’ opening and was ready to left for NYC if they put the contract in front of her.

Staley joined Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston to explain what went down. Ultimately, the two sides couldn’t come to a mutual agreement and understanding.

“I interviewed for the Knicks,” Staley said. “I did. It was, it was the same interview that everybody else (had) that was in their candidate pool, same thing. Went in. I mean, it was like hours, but in the interview, I thought I did pretty well. I was well prepared for the interview, right? If the Knicks would have offered me the job, I would have had to do it. Okay, not just for me, it’s for women, just to break open that … I would have to. And it’s the New York Knicks. And I’m from Philly, but it’s the freaking New York Knicks. And I did say that the interview.”

Staley certainly has the pedigree of a Hall of Fame coach at the college level. She’s 647-190 overall with South Carolina and Temple in her career. She’s won three national championships and made seven Final Fours with South Carolina.

Not only that, Staley was well established as a player too. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star over the course of her playing career.

“Would I take any NBA job? No, but I will say this, the NBA has to be ready for a female head coach,” Staley said. “You can’t just interview somebody and say we’re gonna hire her. Because here’s the thing, because I think I probably lost a job by asking this question, or I had a series of questions that I asked them. One was for who they were looking for, why I was in the candidate pool, right? If I was so attractive, I said, (have) the New York Knicks organization in its history ever had what you’re looking for? They wanted a team. They wanted inclusiveness with management and the coaches and everyone. Wanted to feel like the team of, you know, a closely knit franchise. And the answer was really no.”

Staley, being the intelligent coach she is, asked important questions on how the franchise would handle a history making move. That basically ended any shot of Staley and the Knicks coming together on a deal, so she says.

“But if you don’t hire anybody different, how you going to get that,” Staley said. “That’s one. And then my other question was, how, if you hired me as the first female coach in the WNBA, how would it impact your daily job? Because it would. It would because you’re going to be asked questions that you don’t have to be asked if you hire a male coach.

“There’s going to be the media, there’s going to be all this stuff that you’re going to have to deal with that you you didn’t have to deal with, and you don’t have to deal with when you hire a male and then that that got them to thinking. That really got them to thinking about, ‘maybe she’s right,’ right? And then I felt the energy change after that. So I shot myself in the in the foot by being a leader, being inquisitive and asking all (these) darn questions.”