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Lookup and the primary belongings you’ll see inside South Carolina’s observe health club 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 health club that, even inside a complete 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 health club and also you’ll discover there are phrases plastered on the partitions that mirror what she embodies, too: TOUGHNESS, PASSION, FAMILY.
When the legend herself walks in carrying an all-white match, her aura and vitality is mesmerizing. Her presence instructions the complete room. This is similar visionary who simply led her staff 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 girls’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 carried out and nobody can doubt that she is likely 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 means of the audio system within the background, serving as the right anthem for what we’re making an attempt to seize: her aura, her vitality and all that rattling swaggggg. Not solely is that this Daybreak’s first-ever solo SLAM cowl, however it’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 means larger than the field scores—however, if we’re talkin’ hoops, a legacy that features 38 straight wins this previous season. The Gamecocks have 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 staff’s 2024 Nationwide Champions tee, effortlessly poses in entrance of the digicam. 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, after all, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving tender 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 energy, 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 previously the way you didn’t actually have an curiosity in teaching, at the very least early on. Are you able to carry us again to whenever you have been taking part in within the WNBA and training at Temple on the identical time?
Daybreak Staley: One of the crucial gratifying moments of my life was to have the ability to play after which have the ability 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 might 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. Plenty of coaches have to return in time to that place once they have 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 simply’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.
SLAM: You typically discuss 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’re. I do know we attempt to determine our goal 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 wish 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 every day. The actual world actually is taxing. It pulls you in a number of completely different instructions and when you’re not enthusiastic about it, you aren’t going to present it your full effort. And perhaps half of you is nice sufficient in some cases, however for you as an individual, your achievement is most essential.
So, what does a dream service provider do? That individual guides, that individual helps to navigate, that individual is a listener [and] an observer. That individual 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 influence them. I discover that younger folks speak to their mother and father each single day…I believe again to once I was their age, I in all probability talked to my mother or my dad perhaps twice a month. And when that was? When the funds have been low. However they speak to them each day, so I’m like, OK, nicely, I could have to vary my model. I could need to pivot a bit of bit as a result of I wish to be the largest voice in my gamers’ heads, and if it’s the mother and father which have entry in that means, in speaking to their daughters each day, [then] I gotta speak to the mother and father.
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SLAM: Who have been your mentors? And did any coaches encourage you?
DS: I actually didn’t have teaching mentors. I’m extra of a non-public individual. I don’t like to point out weak point, and that’s in all probability a downfall of mine, however it’s the very factor that retains me going, as a result of it has me working. It at all times has me making 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 in all probability another coaches, and I like them to present me suggestions from the surface trying in, as a result of when it’s all stated and carried out, I wish to be coated. 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 consider that generally they be taught higher from that standpoint.
After which, if I get recommendation from any person that’s not within the basketball world, I can steadiness that and be sure that I’m giving our gamers what I see, in addition to what any person else might even see that I’m not protecting.
SLAM: Has your strategy 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 ideas of who I’m as an individual and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I battle? They alter. Take as an illustration this 12 months—my strategy was solely completely different than my strategy in simply the latest years. Lately, we had a gaggle of gamers that obtained it. They understood the project and what they wanted to do they usually 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 have been completely different. They have been youthful, their strategy was completely different. They have been lackluster, they didn’t actually have a plan as people—they might have thought that they had a plan. Their plan was simply to play extra. You’ll be able to strategy it that means, however it’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 have been outta form. They got here in simply considering, I wanna play. I sat for a very long time. It’s my time. Nicely, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] strategy was loads completely 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 may hit the bottom operating…It was extra of making higher self-discipline and habits, as a result of they hadn’t shaped 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 obtained extra passionate behind it as a result of I’m drawn to challenges. It was cool as a result of they did train me [that] there are a selection of the way to achieve success and quite a few methods to strategy issues.
One of many battles that I didn’t battle that I usually battle: if everyone had the identical sweatsuit on, and one individual didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that individual. I knew it. I may see it, I’m [it] and it seems unusual to me…I approached it as a mistake that had been dealt with. However that’s one of many issues I didn’t battle, as a result of I knew this staff had a means of delivering the message that I might ship.
SLAM: As you talked about, the beginning of the season was a bit of completely different for you. What do you attribute this 12 months’s success to?
DS: We’ve had the most effective staff within the nation previous to this 12 months, I might say for years. The perfect staff within the nation and this one ended up being the most effective staff within the nation by means of default, so to talk. Nevertheless it was a means that was shaped by them and I’ll give all of them the credit score as a result of they might’ve balked, they might’ve stated, I must be beginning—for some time, they might’ve stated, I’m the It. I must be beginning. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I may play with the most effective 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 children simply allowed the older gamers to information them to the purpose the place they have been so assured getting into the basketball recreation that they knew that they have been going to make an influence. And so they stored holding one another accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] discovered her superpower, and her superpower is on each side of the basketball, however it was additionally main. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it obtained to the purpose the place they didn’t wish to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they simply didn’t wish to lose. It was nothing about successful each recreation, however within the second of every recreation, they didn’t wish to lose. So, they might pay attention to one another they usually have been very coachable, after which we simply obtained momentum. We stored pushing by means of after which once we obtained to the Closing 4, they have been like, We gonna win this factor.
Earlier than the nationwide championship recreation, they have been speaking main money ish. The coaches’ locker room is linked to the large locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] allow them to have their area. I’m too near the state of affairs, I don’t wish 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 have 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 obtained themselves right here, they obtained momentum.
As coaches, too, we’d ask one another, You consuming the Kool-Support? We’d actually ask one another. So, for essentially the most half we have been like, Nah, we ain’t consuming it. In the direction of the tip 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 mirror, it was an excellent cool journey and setting to be round them. They only performed free. I instructed this to a pal, I stated, “They performed free.”…So, I believe that was actually type of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s often, like, our journey—how we wish to direct them and information them. Nah. Nah, we obtained on their prepare and we rode their coattails.
SLAM: Now that you simply’ve completed all of it—going undefeated, successful your third chip—how does it really feel?
DS: It feels nice, like significantly. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] seemed the half. They seemed the half, they performed the half. They performed simply freer, however with stress. After which this group was simply not like 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 wish to share our story. I wish to share the great, the dangerous, the ugly but in addition the chance of another person doing what we did—I wish to give them hope, as a result of we didn’t seem like a nationwide championship staff at first of the season. We seemed like a lot of the groups within the nation, so we’re relatable to a lot of the groups. If we may do it, anyone may do it.
SLAM: Your legacy reaches far past Xs and Os, wins and losses. We may 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 stated that I wouldn’t be an Olympian, I wouldn’t be the pinnacle coach of an Olympic staff. To have coached 24 years on this recreation, I do know that I don’t care a few private legacy. I wish to let my gamers speak in regards to the legacy that they have been in a position to really feel each day from our teaching workers. I don’t need to say something, they are saying it. Traditionally talking, you don’t actually hear my identify as being an incredible coach, whether or not it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m in all probability recognized to be a participant’s coach, no matter which means. 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 successful nationwide championships, I do know they might in all probability 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 wish 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: Girls’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 school 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 as if our recreation has simply come out of nowhere and now everyone is falling in love with it, once we know completely different. We all know that again once I was taking part in in ’88, in faculty, in ’89, folks have been watching. They’d tune in. I do know it as a result of I do know once I go to completely different locations, I’m extra recognized for enjoying at Virginia than something. So, they have been watching it.
So, what occurs between then and now? Resolution makers are making some actually good calls on the subject of our recreation…They know that ladies’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the largest distinction now’s we’re being handled like an actual sport. The nice, the dangerous and the ugly as a result of in sports activities you’ve got storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our recreation you’ve got storylines of us being undefeated, successful a nationwide championship. You’ve obtained 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 and extra. And now, lastly, and perhaps, it’s the brand new negotiated TV deal that’s permitting us to proceed to develop. Possibly there’s any person within the room that’s ensuring that now we have completely 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 stunning.
SLAM: You don’t appear to be the kind to chase milestones or historical past, it simply form of finds its strategy to you. With that being stated, is there something that you’ve got your eyes set on earlier than you bow out of teaching?
DS: Selfishly, it’s only one factor that I wished out of this recreation: I wished 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 wish to go in as a coach.
Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Motion photographs through Getty Photos.
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