Dawn Staley, 53, is already regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. That’s what happens when you lead your school to three national championships—two in the last three years—and this year’s iteration of the South Carolina Gamecocks went undefeated along the way. Unless some NBA front office is smart enough to break both a sexist tradition and the bank to hire her (if that’s even an ambition for Staley), her ascension to the Mount Rushmore of college coaches seems predestined. She built the South Carolina program from scratch over 16 seasons and turned it into a gritty powerhouse that reflects her own South Carolina–born Philadelphia-made Hall of Fame playing style. As a player, Staley walked and talked tough. As a coach, she walks with strength and talks with a no-bullshit clarity that commands attention.
Staley’s stature has never been greater, which makes her recent words in defense of trans athletes so important. When a somehow-credentialed right-wing troll in the press room asked her the day before Sunday’s championship game against Iowa whether “biological males” should be able to play women’s sports, she did not equivocate. An at first surprised Staley said, “Damn, you got deep on me, didn’t you?” Then, after a pause, she said, “I’m of the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion. You want me to go deeper?”
