The New York Knicks could end up making history with their new coaching hire.
The Knicks have reached out to South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley about their head coaching vacancy, according to a report this weekend by Knicks Fan TV. The report does note too however that former NBA head coaches Mike Brown and Taylor Jenkins have progressed to a second round of interviews with the Knicks and that Micah Nori, the assistant for the Minnesota Timberwolves, is still in the mix as well.
Staley, 55, is an iconic figure in women’s basketball. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star as a player for the Charlotte Sting and the Houston Comets, and then she went on to a very successful career in coaching. Staley has been the head coach at South Carolina since 2008, leading their women’s team to seven Final Four appearances and three national championships. As for individual accolades, Staley has won four Naismith Coach of the Year Awards and has been inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Throughout all of NBA history, there still has yet to be a full-time female head coach of an NBA team. Other female coaches though have held prominent roles such as Becky Hammon, who served as a Summer League head coach and as a one-game acting head coach, and Nancy Lieberman, who was a head coach in the then-NBA D-League.
It is unclear at this point if the Knicks are legitimately considering Staley, whose Gamecocks had a disappointing loss in the NCAA National Championship game last season, or if Staley would even be open to leaving her position at South Carolina. But it at least seems like Staley is one of several options under consideration for the Knicks.
In a perfect world, the Knicks would clearly like to hire this preferred candidate instead. With that looking very unlikely though, the team is apparently evaluating any and all options that they have to fill the job.
