Dawn Staley, the head coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team, criticized the NCAA about the stark inequalities between the male and female college basketball teams. She sat down for an exclusive interview with CBSN contributor Antjuan Seawright to discuss her legacy of being a “odds scout”.
Video transcription
– The NCAA is apologizing to the female basketball players and coaches for, I quote, “dropping the ball” in preparation for this year’s college basketball championship in San Antonio.
– So for NCAA March Madness, the biggest women’s college basketball tournament, this is our weight room. Let me show you the entire male weight room.
– Several female NCAA athletes accessed social media, pointing out striking disparities between their training facilities and the male ones. The 64 women’s teams were asked to share a single rack of dumbbells at their training facilities. The men received state-of-the-art equipment in Indianapolis. There are also striking discrepancies in the team’s accommodations. Social media posts reveal different food options. Other photos show differences in the gift bags given to the men and women who participated in the tournament. These inequalities have generated extreme online reactions.
One of the biggest critics of the NCAA’s treatment of female athletes is the head coach of women’s basketball at the University of South Carolina, Dawn Staley. She released a statement on Friday, saying, in quotation marks: “Now we know that the messages throughout the NCAA season about unity and equality were about convenience and a catchphrase for the moment created after the assassination of George Floyd.”
She continued: “Every team here in San Antonio has earned and deserves at least the same level of respect as men. All teams here deal with the same problems as the men’s teams this season, but the payoff is different.”
Staley also criticized March Madness’ official Twitter account. It says, “The official destination of the NCAA March Madness for all things in Division I of NCAA men’s basketball.” The future Hall of Fame is one of the most respected college basketball coaches on and off the court. She is known for using her platform to speak on behalf of those who have no voice.
CBS News contributor Antjuan Seawright spoke with trainer Staley to discuss her passion for the game, her influences and what this Women’s History Month means to her.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: What does this month mean to you, coach? I mean, you literally have little girls highlighting you in classrooms, online, organizations. What does this month mean to you?
DAWN STALEY: This month means that we can – we can celebrate those about which we know very little. And we’re … we’re opening up to learn more about people and women. And also to give women that we know have been in the trenches, teaching, learning, growing, being the strength of their families and being the strength of – of the corporations, that we have a chance to say thank you. We have a chance to give them their flowers as long as they can smell them. And we also want to keep pouring on them so that they have the strength to keep breaking the glass ceilings.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: Coach, with the evolutions come the challenges. You have seen some of the challenges in your career, both as a player and as a coach. What do you see in the future as some of the challenges in women’s basketball in particular?
DAWN STALEY: I think for – for me, my personal challenge is to see more black coaches – main coaches. I mean, we have a lot of assistant coaches. We have many undergraduate assistants. We have many, you know, black women sprinkled there, but there is less grainy on the top.
And that’s what’s cool about leadership positions, like ADs and university presidents. My difficulty is to help younger coaches, younger black coaches to find their way. And the way they do it is by getting ready. Because moving 30 centimeters is a big step for you to be prepared for, and not so much, you know, if you know how to defend a ball screen. It’s less about, you know, game planning. You know, you have – you win 30 games a year.
Most of what is happening is that you are impacting the lives of young people and you need to put them in the mentality of being there every day, being there every day. If you are able to crack this code, Xing and Oing are the easiest part of the job.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: Little girls with dreams grow up to become women with vision, that’s what I heard when I was younger. And as we celebrate, we amplify the achievements of so many extraordinary women who have done extraordinary things for all of us, who else inspired you as a woman?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, I– it’s my mom. My mom is my biggest inspiration. Here’s why. You know, not a college graduate. She cleaned houses, you know. She did the best job she could do, the best. And I know that all of her clients have left, you know, wanting her to stay forever. I adopted this work ethic because I used to go with my mother and used to help her clean.
And they were white houses, big houses, big apartments, penthouses. And there was my mom with the keys to it all, you know. They trusted her. So, I mean, my mother was a woman of great character, a faithful woman, a woman of her word, a disciplined woman. The way I train, the passionate way I train, is the passionate way I saw my mom cleaning houses to put food on the table for our family, to keep a roof over our heads.
So, if you can’t find inspiration in the very person you spend most of your time growing up with, I was very lucky, you know, to have a mother like Estelle Staley.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: Coach, what has been your biggest achievement in– in your entire career compared to being a player and a coach? Because you have a buffet of items that most people would dream of having as a player and as a coach.
DAWN STALEY: Probably, you know, my best, and I will say selflessly that my best is to be a dream trader for the players I coach. Honestly, like, you know, watching A’ja Wilson get along so well and give a statue in front of the same place – she said that – her grandmother couldn’t walk. It’s incredible.
Having, you know, 10 players in a WNBA fulfilling your dreams, it fills my heart because my day is over. My– you know, my game days are over. I’m fine with this coaching thing. And I love being able to be part of my players’ process to set some goals and dreams and – and be generational in their families. Like, I hope that generations after them, with what they’re capable of doing in basketball, things won’t be the same.
And they are richer. They are healthier. And they put themselves in a position where they – they – they are their own bosses. So that’s what makes me extremely happy and radiant.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: Coach, this is our last move that we’re going to play for today’s game, so I’m going to ask you something. When you turn off the lights at the gym for this stage of your career, what do you want the world to remember Dawn Staley the player, Dawn Staley the coach, Dawn Staley the woman. What do you want to be remembered for?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, it is quite simple. When I’m dead and dying, or when I hang my shoes in retirement, that’s what I want people to remember, or that’s why I want to be known. I want to be known as a scout. You know, if you look at where I grew up, in northern Philadelphia projects, if you look at the parents who gave birth to me – my father was a construction worker. My mom, you know, was a maid – there was no one who believed that anyone in our home could mean anything.
And that is just because of where we grew up. And that is just because of how we grew up. And that was just because of the lack of opportunity that most people in these situations have. When you have an opportunity and do something with it, you’re overcoming the odds. And that’s what I want my ongoing situation to be, to help people get opportunities that they wouldn’t have, you know, if – if I didn’t speak, and then I saw them thrive on it, and see them become just like me, a beater of odds.