At the height of Pat Summitt’s legendary coaching career, she had “a very brief conversation” with Tennessee officials about coaching the Vols’ men’s basketball team.
The idea didn’t go far. Summitt was not keen on leaving the Lady Vols in favor of the men’s game.
“I’m not interested,” Summitt told reporters in 1997. “Everyone always views that as a step up. I don’t.”
I can understand why Summitt, a pioneer for women’s sports, would see coaching the Tennessee men as a step down. Summitt’s Lady Vols powered and ruled women’s basketball. The Tennessee men were mired in a stretch of losing seasons.
And still, I would have been interested in seeing Summitt coach men’s basketball, either collegiately or in the NBA.
Likewise, I’d be interested in seeing how South Carolina’s Dawn Staley would fare if she crossed into coaching men in the NBA.
Reports surfaced in recent days that the New York Knicks might have interest in Staley for their coaching vacancy, and South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati on Monday confirmed to the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the Knicks reached out to Staley about the position.
Unlike Summitt’s situation at Tennessee, Staley leaving South Carolina in favor of the Knicks would be a step up. It’s literally a next-level opportunity. To coach the Knicks is to coach in a basketball mecca, in the nation’s brightest (and hottest) spotlight.
Staley, 55, has repeatedly professed her commitment to South Carolina. I couldn’t envision her leaving for another college job. The NBA, though, could move the needle. Staley previously interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers coaching position in 2021.
Staley, like Summitt before her, doesn’t need the men’s game, and the Knicks don’t necessarily need her. This remains an enviable job that should attract a variety of good candidates.
Would Staley be an interesting choice? Absolutely, she would. Hiring Staley would be perhaps the boldest move the Knicks could make.
No woman has ever coached an NBA team.
No shame in Dawn Staley staying at South Carolina, but …
Staley knows the game. She’s not only an elite recruiter for South Carolina, but she’s also an effective motivator who unites a variety of personalities, and she’s established her X’s and O’s acumen. Still, coaching collegiate women and professional men pose different challenges.
Not every elite college coach would thrive in the NBA. Ask Rick Pitino about that. He didn’t connect with NBA players.
Summitt once swatted aside the idea of coaching NBA players.
“Watching some of these guys, I wouldn’t even want to deal with them,” Summitt told Time magazine in 2009.
Former Connecticut women’s basketball player Gabby Williams once said Geno Auriemma would “lose his mind” coaching men. I disagree. In his younger days, I think Auriemma would have been a very good men’s college basketball coach, but he turned back opportunities.
There’s no shame in sticking with what you know and doing it better than your peers. If Staley sticks around at South Carolina, where she’s won three national championships, she’d likely finish her career on the women’s basketball coaching Mount Rushmore, where Summitt and Auriemma are linchpins.
There also would be no shame in Staley leaving the women’s game for a new challenge. She’s given women’s basketball 25 years of her coaching career. Staley and her star-studded Gamecocks teams helped accelerate the sport’s rise in popularity. Women’s basketball would miss Staley, but it’s positioned to withstand the loss of one coaching star.
Coaching Knicks would be a low-risk move for Dawn Staley
Staley would face heightened scrutiny in the NBA, and every decision she made would be subject to New York’s media microscope. Even so, she wouldn’t absorb much professional risk if she gave the NBA a shot.
Best-case scenario: She’d succeed in the NBA, grow her legacy, and possibly pave the way for more women to become NBA coaches.
Or, if she struggled in the NBA, she’d retain a clear path back to the college game. Women’s programs would stumble over themselves to hire her. South Carolina was nothing before Staley arrived, and she could galvanize another women’s program, too, much like Kim Mulkey did for LSU after leaving Baylor.
Staley shouldn’t feel compelled to break barriers. If she wants to keep coaching women, she should. If she’s ready for something different, now is the time, while she’s in her prime.
Staley’s not the only woman qualified for this job, either. Consider the case of Becky Hammon, the former NBA assistant who’s won two WNBA titles coaching the Las Vegas Aces.
Hammon would be a potentially awkward choice, though, considering she once questioned whether the Knicks could win an NBA title with Jalen Brunson as their star, because he’s too small. Was Hammon wrong? The Knicks haven’t reached the NBA Finals since 1999.
Still, that’d be grounds for a bumpy dynamic between coach and star player.
Staley, by comparison, knows Brunson. She has a rapport with him. That’s handy. Managing star players and their egos comes as part of an NBA job description.
Staley has nothing left to prove in the women’s game. That doesn’t mean she must leave for the NBA, but how fun would it be if she did, and journeyed to a place Summitt never ventured?
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.