Lookup and the primary belongings you’ll see inside South Carolina’s observe fitness center are the portraits of the gamers she’s coached, mentored, impressed: first-round WNBA draft picks together with A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, Alaina Coates, Allisha Grey, Kaela Davis, Laeticia Amihere, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, Ty Harris and Zia Cooke. They function a reminder to anybody who steps within the fitness center that, even inside a whole athletic program, The Daybreak Staley Period is, and has at all times been, on the forefront. She’s the one Gamecocks basketball coach—males’s or ladies’s—to amass 300 wins, and the one Black head coach in hoops—males’s or ladies’s—to win a number of nationwide championships. Look throughout the fitness center and also you’ll discover there are phrases plastered on the partitions that replicate what she embodies, too: TOUGHNESS, PASSION, FAMILY.
When the legend herself walks in carrying an all-white match, her aura and power is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions your entire room. This is identical visionary who simply led her crew to an undefeated season and this system’s third nationwide championship, a feat only a few anticipated them to perform. That is the very trailblazer who’s the best paid Black coach in all of ladies’s basketball. That is the Daybreak Staley, the dream service provider who has led not only a program, however the tradition, into a brand new day the place nobody can deny what she’s accomplished and nobody can doubt that she is without doubt one of the greats. It’s written within the banners, within the stars, and on this very cowl. She is in cost. The CEO of excellence.
SLAM 250 featuring Dawn Staley is available now.
Along with her proper hand man, Champ, prancing just a few steps behind her, Staley exudes calm, cool and picked up as she walks onto set. Biggie is blasting by the audio system within the background, serving as the right anthem for what we’re attempting to seize: her aura, her power and all that rattling swaggggg. Not solely is that this Daybreak’s first-ever solo SLAM cowl, but it surely’s the primary time ever that any coach has had their very own cowl for the journal. As we speak is about capturing the legacy of somebody who’s manner larger than the field scores—however, if we’re talkin’ hoops, a legacy that features 38 straight wins this previous season. The Gamecocks had been out right here destroying groups by upwards of fifty, 60, nah, 80 factors per recreation.
As legendary photographer Diwang Valdez snaps away, Staley, who’s now carrying the crew’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digital camera. Simply whenever you assume the flicks couldn’t get any extra fly, Daybreak turns issues up with one other outfit change. This time she’s rocking a black blazer, tearaway joggers and, in fact, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving delicate smiles and playful banter to reworking, as she leans again into the chair she’s now sitting in, crosses her legs and rests her elbow on a basketball. She stares into the lens, giving the identical look that we’ve seen from her on the court docket. It’s deeply methodical, poetic even. Proper now, Daybreak means enterprise.
That is the face of somebody who has personified power, resilience and authenticity for many years. Right here, she provides us a glimpse into her thoughts and her magic—a dialog that’s as a lot about basketball as it’s about how she sees folks, her legacy, and—with true sincerity—herself.
SLAM: You’ve talked about up to now the way you didn’t actually have an curiosity in teaching, at the very least early on. Are you able to convey us again to whenever you had been taking part in within the WNBA and training at Temple on the identical time?
Daybreak Staley: One of the gratifying moments of my life was to have the ability to play after which be capable to coach all on the identical time. As a result of it performed on each side of my mind and the eagerness was on full show. If any of the youthful gamers within the WNBA ever have the chance to do each, they’d discover that it’s so fulfilling. You’re in a position to get out the aggression of taking part in whereas additionally being a dream service provider for youthful gamers and giving them an expertise that you’re really dwelling. Numerous coaches have to return in time to that place after they had been taking part in, however whenever you’re in a position to do it in actual time, it’s an computerized respect out of your gamers as a result of they know you’re doing the very factor that you just’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You usually check with your self not simply as a coach however a “dream service provider.” Are you able to elaborate on what you imply?
DS: Anyone that’s teaching this recreation, that’s what you might be. I do know we strive to determine our objective in teaching, and it’s simply that: being a dream service provider for younger folks. Serving to younger folks discover their ardour [and] work in direction of that. It’s not at all times basketball—it’s not. For 90 % of them, it’s not basketball. It is determining what you need to do, as a result of I would like folks to work of their ardour. It’s a lot simpler to work in your ardour if that’s what you do each day. The true world actually is taxing. It pulls you in a number of totally different instructions and should you’re not keen about it, you aren’t going to offer it your full effort. And possibly half of you is sweet sufficient in some situations, however for you as an individual, your success is most essential.
So, what does a dream service provider do? That particular person guides, that particular person helps to navigate, that particular person is a listener [and] an observer. That particular person is somebody that’s reliable of not solely the student-athlete however everyone that touches that student-athlete, as a result of it’s not only a one-way avenue. All younger folks have folks of their lives that impression them. I discover that younger folks discuss to their dad and mom each single day…I believe again to once I was their age, I most likely talked to my mother or my dad possibly twice a month. And when that was? When the funds had been low. However they discuss to them on daily basis, so I’m like, OK, properly, I could have to vary my fashion. I could should pivot slightly bit as a result of I need to be the largest voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the dad and mom which have entry in that manner, in speaking to their daughters on daily basis, [then] I gotta discuss to the dad and mom.
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SLAM: Who had been your mentors? And did any coaches encourage you?
DS: I actually didn’t have teaching mentors. I’m extra of a personal particular person. I don’t like to point out weak point, and that’s most likely a downfall of mine, but it surely’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It at all times has me getting ready for the worst, and I don’t wish to take my issues to anyone else. I’ll say I’ve folks in my life that I bounce issues off that [are not] as near the sport as most likely another coaches, and I like them to offer me suggestions from the skin trying in, as a result of when it’s all mentioned and accomplished, I wish to be lined. My thoughts works as a basketball coach more often than not, so I’m at all times searching for basketball issues to show classes to our gamers as a result of I imagine that typically they study higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from any person that’s not within the basketball world, I can stability that and make it possible for I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any person else might even see that I’m not masking.
SLAM: Has your method to teaching modified at everywhere in the years? Are there issues that labored early in your profession that won’t work now and vice versa?
DS: We’re in an period the place now we have to pivot. What labored 24 years in the past is not going to work right now. I’ll say this: The core rules of who I’m as an individual and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I struggle? They alter. Take for example this 12 months—my method was fully totally different than my method in simply the current years. In recent times, we had a bunch of gamers that acquired it. They understood the task and what they wanted to do and so they executed on and off the court docket, so that they gave us no points. I used to be simply in a position to be a basketball coach.
This 12 months, they had been totally different. They had been youthful, their method was totally different. They had been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they could have thought that they had a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You’ll be able to method it that manner, but it surely’s shallow, so that you gotta put one thing behind it. We labored from a spot that we hadn’t labored from in a very long time, which was, Hit the bottom operating. We couldn’t [even do that] as a result of they couldn’t run, they had been outta form. They got here in simply pondering, I wanna play. I sat for a very long time. It’s my time. Effectively, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] method was rather a lot totally different. Zia, Aliyah, Brea [Beal], all of them got here in form. Each time that we needed to come again in the summertime, so we might hit the bottom operating…It was extra of making higher self-discipline and habits, as a result of they hadn’t fashioned it to the diploma of them being able to rock and roll. So, I checked out it as a problem, and as soon as I checked out it [as that], I acquired extra passionate behind it as a result of I’m drawn to challenges. It was cool as a result of they did educate me [that] there are a selection of how to achieve success and quite a few methods to method issues.
One of many battles that I didn’t struggle that I usually struggle: if everyone had the identical sweatsuit on, and one particular person didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that particular person. I knew it. I might see it, I’m taking a look at [it] and it appears to be like unusual to me…I approached it as a mistake that had been dealt with. However that’s one of many issues I didn’t struggle, as a result of I knew this crew had a manner of delivering the message that I might ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was slightly totally different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the perfect crew within the nation previous to this 12 months, I might say for years. The most effective crew within the nation and this one ended up being the perfect crew within the nation by the use of default, so to talk. Nevertheless it was a manner that was fashioned by them and I’ll give all of them the credit score as a result of they may’ve balked, they may’ve mentioned, I ought to be beginning—for some time, they may’ve mentioned, I’m the It. I ought to be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I might play with the perfect of them. Let me get a few of Breezy’s time. Let me get a few of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t. Truly, the kids simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they had been so assured getting into the basketball recreation that they knew that they had been going to make an impression. And so they stored holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on each side of the basketball, but it surely was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it acquired to the purpose the place they didn’t need to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they only didn’t need to lose. It was nothing about profitable every recreation, however within the second of every recreation, they didn’t need to lose. So, they’d pay attention to one another and so they had been very coachable, after which we simply acquired momentum. We stored pushing by after which once we acquired to the Ultimate 4, they had been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship recreation, they had been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is linked to the massive locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] allow them to have their house. I’m too near the scenario, I don’t need to hear them, [but] they’re like, We’re going to kick their A, and I’m like, Lord, they don’t know what they don’t know. Both we’re going to get blown out, or we’re going to blow any person out as a result of they had been speaking. And I do know they’re hyping themselves up, however as coaches, , we gotta go on the market and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they acquired themselves right here, they acquired momentum.
As coaches, too, we might ask one another, You consuming the Kool-Support? We’d actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we had been like, Nah, we ain’t consuming it. In direction of the top of the 12 months, we requested, How about now? You consuming the Kool-Support? I’m like, I’m sippin’. I ain’t taking an enormous gulp, however I’m sippin’. As a result of they’re placing it on show. I believe, simply total as I replicate, it was a brilliant cool journey and surroundings to be round them. They only performed free. I advised this to a buddy, I mentioned, “They performed free.”…So, I believe that was actually type of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s normally, like, our journey—how we need to direct them and information them. Nah. Nah, we acquired on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you just’ve completed all of it—going undefeated, profitable your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like severely. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] regarded the half. They regarded the half, they performed the half. They performed simply freer, however with strain. After which this group was simply in contrast to any of them. I don’t assume anyone noticed it coming. We didn’t see it coming, in order that’s what I like about it. I’m sitting [here] and I’m blissful…I need to share our story. I need to share the nice, the unhealthy, the ugly but additionally the chance of another person doing what we did—I need to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t seem like a nationwide championship crew originally of the season. We regarded like a lot of the groups within the nation, so we’re relatable to a lot of the groups. If we might do it, anyone might do it.
SLAM: Your legacy reaches far past Xs and Os, wins and losses. We might go on and on, however what do you, Daybreak Staley, need your legacy to be?
DS: I would like my legacy to be an “odds beater.” I’m an odds beater. The percentages mentioned that I wouldn’t be an Olympian, I wouldn’t be the top coach of an Olympic crew. To have coached 24 years on this recreation, I do know that I don’t care a couple of private legacy. I need to let my gamers discuss in regards to the legacy that they had been in a position to really feel on daily basis from our teaching workers. I don’t should say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my title as being an awesome coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m most likely identified to be a participant’s coach, no matter meaning. However to win three nationwide championships, to not be an X and O coach and solely be a participant’s coach, I believe we’re doing fairly good. If the X-ing and O-ing coaches aren’t profitable nationwide championships, I do know they’d most likely flip it and be a participant’s coach, if it produces nationwide championships. I actually don’t care about any of that, however what I do care about is our gamers, their experiences [and] their legacy, as a result of the extra of a legacy they’ve, it comes again. I simply need to do proper by our gamers.
SLAM: You’ve seen ladies’s basketball skyrocket from a enterprise standpoint, beginning out of your taking part in days to what it’s right now. What has it been wish to see this transformation in actual time?
DS: Ladies’s basketball is tremendous cool, now. I might say now. It was tremendous cool to me once I was rising up taking part in it and going to varsity as a result of I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now that I do know what I find out about our recreation, one, we’ve been deliberately held again. I do know that as a result of it simply doesn’t come out of nowhere. It looks like our recreation has simply come out of nowhere and now everyone is falling in love with it, once we know totally different. We all know that again once I was taking part in in ’88, in faculty, in ’89, folks had been watching. They’d tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know once I go to totally different locations, I’m extra identified for enjoying at Virginia than something. So, they had been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Resolution makers are making some actually good calls with regards to our recreation…They know that ladies’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the largest distinction now could be we’re being handled like an actual sport. The nice, the unhealthy and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you have got storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our recreation you have got storylines of us being undefeated, profitable a nationwide championship. You’ve acquired Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of those storylines which can be being performed out now as a result of the followers need increasingly more and extra. And now, lastly, and possibly, it’s the brand new negotiated TV deal that’s permitting us to proceed to develop. Perhaps there’s any person within the room that’s ensuring that now we have totally different folks telling our tales. You bought Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I assumed that complete crew broke basketball down like no different. Wasn’t biased, as a result of we gotta get the bias out of our recreation. So, you noticed what occurs when it’s unbiased. It was completely lovely.
SLAM: You don’t seem to be the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply form of finds its option to you. With that being mentioned, is there something that you’ve your eyes set on earlier than you bow out of teaching?
DS: Selfishly, it’s only one factor that I needed out of this recreation: I needed to be a Corridor of Famer. So, I went in [to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame] in 2013 as a participant. Now, I do need to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs through Getty Pictures.
