Dawn Staley & the Gravitas of New York

The Knicks are mostly set for this upcoming season, except for their final roster spot. But a couple of months ago, there was a lot of uncertainty—especially around the team’s head coach position.

Before the team decided on Mike Brown, there were quite a few names thrown out and conversations had over who would lead the franchise moving forward. One of those names, as we first reported here on Knicks Fan TV, was South Carolina women’s head coach Dawn Staley. The Knicks didn’t hire Staley, but she recently spoke about her interview process on the “Post Moves” podcast with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston.

When asked if she would take an NBA job, Staley said that she wouldn’t take any NBA job, but if the Knicks job were offered to her, she would have taken it “because it’s the New York Knicks.” It’s a statement that runs in stark contrast to many who have thought that coaching the Knicks is not a coveted position, and it also forces us to consider what the magnitude of hiring Staley would have been in the context of women coaches in the NBA.

During the Knicks’ coaching search, they became the butt of many jokes, with countless onlookers comparing this current regime to the chaotic tenures of the early 2000s Knicks. Others used the firing of Tom Thibodeau as a sign of a franchise that is delusional and viewing itself as greater than it actually is. The Knicks haven’t won a championship in over 50 years, after all!

And yet, despite this, coaches like Dawn Staley are willing to leave an excellent situation, such as South Carolina, to coach this allegedly horrid franchise. When Mike Brown was hired, he said that he “loves and embraces the expectations that come with being in New York.” When Tom Thibodeau was hired in 2020, he mentioned the mystique of coaching in New York and how there is a magic to the city, its fans, and the Garden.

Some teams and cities have a certain aura to them when they are winning. In the NFL, it’s special when the Packers and Steelers are competing for titles, for instance. Despite the decades of mediocrity, the Knicks are a brand that still matters—as much as that might annoy other fan bases. Coaches and players around the league know this; it’s why they love playing at The Garden so much. Because it is historic, yes, but also because on some level, competing in New York City, in that arena, in front of those fans, just matters.

It is doubtful that if Staley were to be interviewed for a team like the Utah Jazz that she would entertain the offer. But because it’s the Knicks, there is an appeal to coach a team that is so visible, to send a message about her merits as an elite basketball coach. This likely would have been the case for Staley if there had been an opening for the Celtics, Lakers, or 76ers.

Her willingness and interest in the Knicks refute the rhetoric on social media that was often spewed during the coaching search that coaching the Knicks is somehow a death sentence for a basketball coach. But interest aside, Staley was not hired by the Knicks, and who will be the league’s first woman head coach remains an unknown — a dynamic that Staley also touched on during her podcast appearance.

During her podcast appearance, Staley also mentioned that the tone of the conversation shifted with the Knicks when she asked if they would be prepared to answer the inevitable questions that would arise for hiring the first woman head coach in NBA history. For a front office led by Leon Rose, who has been notoriously distant from the media, this was a calculation that they couldn’t quite justify.

The NBA has had several successful women assistants in recent years—Jenny Boucek, Becky Hammon, and Teresa Weatherspoon, to name a few. But none have been elevated to the head role, likely because that job comes with more scrutiny, and no NBA team seems to be ready to face the media whirlwind that comes with being a trailblazer. For a team like the Knicks, the scrutiny that would ensue from breaking this barrier is immense.

We live in a world where every decision any team makes is analyzed, overanalyzed, and then analyzed again for good measure. It is reasonable to think that if a team with as much public notoriety as the Knicks were to be the team to tear down this proverbial wall, they would be scrutinized for it after every bad game. But then again, it can also be argued that the Knicks deal with that after almost every loss from both a local and national coverage perspective.

Every Knicks game feels like a big deal to this fan base, and that is an environment Dawn Staley knows all too well at South Carolina—a program that has grown to demand championships under her direction. I would argue that it’s not a small market that should hire the league’s first woman head coach, but rather one that is used to media scrutiny and can navigate it more easily.

The question that remains with this topic is, if not Dawn Staley now, or Becky Hammon a few years ago, then when will the league be ready? Of the coaches hired in this offseason cycle, Pacers assistant Jenny Boucek is just as qualified (if not more so) as anyone to lead an NBA franchise. It is a gap that the league faces, and if it were the Knicks who did it, it simply would have sent a stronger message.

Consider someone like Charles Lee, the current head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. He is a promising young assistant getting a chance, but he is largely unknown because he is coaching the Charlotte Hornets. Much like any other barrier in sports, there should be an eye on history when these decisions are made and who makes them.

A team like the Knicks breaking the barrier would have mattered and would have positioned Staley well to be able to answer the tough questions. The merit of the Knicks interviewing and almost hiring Staley, with her determination to accept the job if it was offered, regardless of the misguided criticism, shows why coaching the Knicks still matters, why the person who patrols the sidelines at the Garden night in and night out matters. History will be made eventually, but it would have sent a profound message if it were made by the Knicks.