Dawn Staley
Dawn Staley
Dawn Michelle Staley is an American basketball hall of fame player and coach. Staley is a three-time Olympian and was elected to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics. After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she went to play professionally in the American Basketball League and the WNBA. In 2011, Staley was voted in by fans as...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth4 May 1970
CityPhiladelphia, PA
She's taking care of the basketball. She's knocking down threes. The only thing she could do is just be a little more vocal. And if we can get that out of her, we'll probably be a better basketball team.
I told Candice our team is searching for a leader. We are searching for someone to listen to, searching for someone to ride her coattail. It had to be her.
She's capable of doing that. You don't want her to touch it in that situation.
It would bring tremendous publicity, revenue and a massive amount of people from all over the world to our beautiful city. It would also help the children of Philadelphia see that they too could become an Olympic athlete.
It would have been devastating. They made the trades to make themselves better, and I was getting a chance to play for a championship.
This team is the most undisciplined team that we've had. They're just really undisciplined. They're not a team. This is the first team that's not a team, so we're going to get to the problem. We'll slowly but surely get to it, but we'll get to it.
When you're faced with this type of situation, it's not going to be easy, ... but it's doable as long as there is time on the clock.
We're not back there with Stony Brook, I can tell you that. Our team lacked leadership in the beginning. It's gotten a lot better in the past six to eight weeks. Candice Dupree has really taken on a vocal role. Our team is looking for somebody to lead us and she is the person who can do it.
You'd think you would go in and see the crying. They're not like that; they're very positive. I wasn't anticipating that. I thought I was going to have to comfort people. But they let us know exactly what went on, (that) they were out of a tough situation and were on to something else that could give them a little hope.
Until the trainers clear her, then I can only play the players that are ready to play.
We are not in the driver's seat. And when you're not in the driver's seat, you got to play hungry every night. And that's what we're doing.
We made it dramatic. But that's why Coach (Van) Chancellor and Coach (Bill) Laimbeer made the moves. They knew it wasn't going to be easy. They had the foresight to look at who they were going to be playing the last 10 games.
We faced elimination, so we know what it feels like. Seattle doesn't at this point, so it (the pressure) is going to be on them. They're supposed to win.
A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don't see what it takes to get there.