Staley, Dawn

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    Dawn Staley Is More Than a Basketball Coach for Her Players

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    For the veteran women’s coach at the college and Olympic levels, honesty and discipline are central to leadership.This article is part of our Women and Leadership special report that coincides with global events in March celebrating the accomplishments of women. This conversation has been edited and condensed.As coach of the University of South Carolina women’s top-ranked basketball team, Dawn Staley is a dynamic leader at a time of surging global popularity in women’s sports. At 53, she is a Hall of Fame point guard who guided the United States to three Olympic gold medals as a player and one as a coach. And in her 16th year at South Carolina, Coach Staley just led the team to its second straight undefeated regular season. Now she seeks her third national collegiate title. A proud Philadelphia native, Coach Staley is an outspoken advocate for gender and racial equity in sports and beyond.Her secret to guiding young people today? Honesty and discipline, lessons she learned from her mother.You make statements with your coaching wardrobe, and a hoodie you recently wore declared, “Everyone watches women’s sports.” What’s different now?I just feel like there’s more access to our game. There’s more demand. I think it’s OK to tell the stories of our game and people in our game. I hope it’s not a fad. I don’t think it is. Because the fabric of our game is strong. It’s bursting at the seams right now on all levels, not just collegiately, but the W.N.B.A., even high school. Younger girls have grown up on the W.N.B.A., and during my time in college, we didn’t have that. We’ll get a big bump when the Olympics roll around.For the first time, there’s going to be the same number of female athletes as male athletes at the Olympics. Are you amazed it took that long?No. I’m not. I think we have been held back, intentionally, and the numbers and the demand today prove that.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever Has Officially Arrived

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      Boston, the Indiana Fever rookie forward and center, has already become a face of the W.N.B.A. just months into her professional career.Aliyah Boston said she usually keeps it cool when she faces the star basketball players she grew up watching on television. But her poker face slipped last month.Boston, a rookie power forward and center for the Indiana Fever, was in a close contest against the Las Vegas Aces and she was shoulder to shoulder with her childhood idol, Candace Parker.“It was unreal,” Boston said. “We’re standing on the free-throw line, cracking jokes. And I’m like: ‘Aliyah, don’t laugh. This is serious business.’”Fifteen years ago, when Boston was just 6 years old, Parker won the W.N.B.A.’s Rookie of the Year Award. Now Boston is on track to do the same.She was the first rookie to be named a starter for the W.N.B.A. All-Star Game in nine years and only the eighth rookie ever. The achievement added to what has been an impressive season for Boston, who is drawing comparisons to greats like Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson and Elena Delle Donne just weeks into her professional career.“She’s going to be a great one,” said Aces Coach Becky Hammon, who also coached Boston in the All-Star Game in Las Vegas on Saturday. “Indiana has a centerpiece, literally a center piece to build around.”Aliyah Boston, second from left, started in the W.N.B.A. All-Star Game after leading the league in field-goal percentage.Jamie Squire/Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesBoston is averaging 15.4 points per game, the most of any first-year player, and she is shooting a league-leading 61 percent from the field. The No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, Boston has swept rookie of the month award honors so far this season.“I never thought I’d be an All-Star my rookie season,” Boston said on Saturday. “It’s just a blessing to be in this position right now.”Boston exudes confidence. As the All-Star lineups were announced, she danced out onto the stage to the delight of her veteran teammates. And she is poised on the court. With her Indiana Fever down 3 to the Liberty last week, Boston knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. The Liberty eventually won, 95-87.“She is going through uncharted territory a little bit,” Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said, “but still making sure that she’s able to have an impact on the court and play her game.”Boston is known for having an impact. While playing for Coach Dawn Staley at South Carolina, Boston was a four-time all-American and set several team records, including in rebounds, double-doubles and triple-doubles. In 2021, she led the Gamecocks to their second N.C.A.A. Division I title in program history. Now she’s trying to make her mark on a Fever team that has struggled for years. Wins are still hard to come by, but Boston has already proved her value.“It’s a smooth transition for her,” Staley said. “She makes it look easy. And I know it’s not.”Boston became known for her multicolored braids in college and has continued the style in the pros.Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesThat transition from college to the W.N.B.A. includes myriad challenges, from the pace of play to the constant travel to the increased physicality, said Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, the No. 1 draft pick in 2020.“It’s hard, and hats off to her and the entire Indiana organization for helping her do what she does,” Ionescu said. “That’s why they drafted her at 1, because they know what she’s capable of doing.”Boston said her basketball I.Q. is the main skill that has translated from college to the pros. Staley agreed.“She makes the right basketball decisions,” Staley said. “And when you’ve played that way your entire life, nothing changes. It’s only the people that change.”One of the new people Boston has faced is Delle Donne, who was named the rookie of the year in 2013. Delle Donne said that one of the trickier aspects of joining the league is how quickly players need to get used to a new program, new coach and new teammates, but said that none of that seems to have slowed down Boston. Last month, against Delle Donne’s Washington Mystics, Boston scored 23 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the Fever’s 87-66 win.Boston with her Indiana teammates.Steph Chambers/Getty Images“She’s so dominant,” Delle Donne said. “I mean, she crushed us the other game. She’s a rookie that requires veteran defensive schemes.”Delle Donne added that it can be hard to manage the pressure of coming in as the No. 1 overall pick. Last season, the Fever finished at the bottom of the 12-team league with a 5-31 record.“To know the expectation that you’re supposed to come and completely change a team is hard, but you can do it,” Delle Donne said. “Coming into the league, there’s always so much excitement about a new player who’s going to continue to raise our game and make it even better. So night in and night out, people are watching what you’re doing.”For now, Boston seems unfazed by the attention.“Something that I always take with me is, never get too high with the highs and too low with the lows,” Boston said. “Stay levelheaded.” More

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      WNBA Draft: Aliyah Boston Goes No. 1 to Indiana Fever

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      Boston, a senior forward from the University of South Carolina, was the second-ever top pick from her college.When Aliyah Boston was 12 years old, she took a 1,700-mile journey with her sister to their aunt’s home in Massachusetts from the U.S. Virgin Islands, hoping to become a good enough basketball player to go to college for free and maybe one day make it to the W.N.B.A.Boston fulfilled that dream on Monday night at Spring Studios in New York when the Indiana Fever selected her with the first pick in the W.N.B.A. draft. Boston is the University of South Carolina’s second-ever No. 1 pick in the draft; A’ja Wilson was the first, in 2018.The Minnesota Lynx selected Diamond Miller, a guard from the University of Maryland, with the No. 2 overall pick. At No. 3, the Dallas Wings chose Maddy Siegrist, a forward from Villanova University.The Wings, who also had the fifth pick, shook up the night by trading future draft selections to the Washington Mystics for the fourth pick, Iowa State center Stephanie Soares. They took Connecticut guard Lou Lopez Sénéchal with the next pick.Boston’s selection didn’t come as a surprise. She had been linked with the Fever since they landed the first pick at the draft lottery in November. Boston, a forward, will join a former South Carolina teammate, guard Destanni Henderson, in Indiana.Henderson was in the audience recording on a phone and before Boston headed into a news conference they embraced and celebrated loudly.“She was like, ‘We’re reunited and we’re teammates again,’ and I was like, ‘And it feels so good,’ you know that song?” Boston said before singing her version of the song “Reunited” by the group Peaches & Herb.South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley, center, poses with Gamecocks players who were drafted on Monday, left to right: Laeticia Amihere, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Brea Beal.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesWith Henderson in 2021-22, Boston had the best statistical season of her college career, ending it with a national championship win over Connecticut. Boston and Henderson will look to recreate that winning chemistry for the Fever, who have been something of a punching bag for the rest of the league.Indiana has not made the playoffs since 2016 and has finished with the league’s worst record in the past two seasons. Last season, the Fever finished with five wins; the second-worst team, the Los Angeles Sparks, had 13.“She’s going to have an immediate impact on this league,” Fever General Manager Lin Dunn said at a predraft news conference on Thursday. “And I’m just thankful — I think we all are — that she opted to come into the draft.”It was a South Carolina-laden first round as forward Laeticia Amihere was selected eighth by the Atlanta Dream, and guard Zia Cooke was taken 10th by the Sparks. Brea Beal, who anchored South Carolina’s perimeter defense, was selected by the Minnesota Lynx at No. 24. Alexis Morris, the star Louisiana State guard who helped the Tigers win their first championship just over a week ago, was selected by the Connecticut Sun with the 22nd pick.Boston had been a top player in college basketball since she arrived in South Carolina in 2019. She is a post-scoring, shot-blocking forward who anchored the Gamecocks as they amassed a 129-9 record over her four seasons. Boston was the consensus national player of the year in 2022 and won the Naismith Award for the defensive player of the year in each of her final two seasons.Alexis Morris, who won the N.C.A.A. championship with Louisiana State this month, was drafted by the Connecticut Sun in the second round.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesIn her final year, Boston led South Carolina to its first undefeated regular season in program history. Boston’s numbers were down, partly because of South Carolina’s depth and a defensive strategy used by many opponents that made it difficult for her to get loose. The Gamecocks averaged the most bench points per game in Division I in the 2022-23 season with 36.1, almost 5 points per game more than the next closest team.With Henderson gone, South Carolina never found a reliable scoring guard next to Cooke. So all season, teams sagged off the other guards, daring them to shoot and helping in the paint to deny Boston the ball.That’s a strategy teams can’t employ in the W.N.B.A., because of both the scoring ability of professional guards and the league’s defensive three-second rule, which forbids defenders from standing in the paint for longer than three seconds unless they are within an arm’s length of an offensive player they’re guarding. So Boston will likely see much more one-on-one defense and space to roam than she had over her college career.“I’m really excited for that type of spacing,” Boston said in a recent interview. “Because I think it just shows everyone how they’re able to, you know, just use their talent and go to work.”For that reason, South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley encouraged Boston to enter the draft this year, after the team lost to Iowa in the Final Four.“There are defenses that are played against her that won’t allow her to play her game. And then it’s hard to officiate that,” Staley said.Staley added: “She’s meant everything to our program. She has been the cornerstone of our program for the past four years. She elevated us. She raised the standard of how to approach basketball. She’s never had a bad day.”Boston still had a year of eligibility remaining, the extra year granted to athletes by the N.C.A.A. due to the coronavirus pandemic. She likely would have been in the conversation for player of the year again, and South Carolina would have been a favorite to win the national title with her back.But perhaps the most significant incentives to stay were the earnings she could have made in college, thanks to rules that allow athletes to make money from their name, image and likeness.Maryland’s Diamond Miller was the No. 2 draft pick, by the Minnesota Lynx.Adam Hunger/Associated PressMany women’s basketball players, like Boston, can make more money from collectives and endorsements as college athletes than they can earn from W.N.B.A. salaries alone; the base pay for rookies this season will range from $62,285 to $74,305, depending on the draft round.That earning potential likely played a role in the decisions of the stars who weren’t at the draft this year. Several eligible players who may have been first-round picks opted to return to college, such as UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Stanford’s Cameron Brink, Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley, Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes and U.C.L.A.’s Charisma Osborne. (The W.N.B.A. requires players from the United States to turn 22 years old in the calendar year of the draft.)That makes next year’s draft all the more exciting. It could be loaded with talent: L.S.U.’s Angel Reese and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the two stars who headlined the Division I women’s tournament with their scoring and showmanship, will be eligible. (For her part, Reese said on a podcast that she is in “no rush” to go to the W.N.B.A. because she is making more than some top players in the pro league.)Still, there are only 12 teams and 144 roster spots in the W.N.B.A. Only 36 players are picked in the draft, and only about half of those players typically make an opening day roster. And without a developmental league like the N.B.A.’s G League, some of the best basketball players end up going overseas to play professionally.“Our top players will not make a pro team,” Arizona Coach Adia Barnes said, adding: “You’re competing against, like, 30-year-old women. It’s hard. It’s competitive.”Expansion seems like it could be an easy fix to this issue, but W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has cited financial concerns for why it’s not possible right now. Engelbert said in February that the league was not in a rush to add new teams but would like to see at least two new teams added in two to four years.“I’m not going to give a timetable,” Engelbert said on Monday night, adding: “The last thing we want to do is bring new owners in that are going to fail.”One of the league’s biggest issues has been how teams travel. W.N.B.A. players fly commercial, while most major college programs fly charter. Ahead of Monday night’s draft, the league announced it would offer charter flights for all postseason games and select regular-season games where teams have back-to-back games.“We intend to do more,” Engelbert said, adding: “We do need some patience and time to build it so that we feel comfortable funding something more substantial as we get into our ensuing years.” More

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      Dawn Staley Is Still Coaching A’ja Wilson

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      Staley and Wilson won a college championship at South Carolina. Now the coach is a “second mother” who harps on Wilson’s game as she stars for the Las Vegas Aces in the W.N.B.A.LAS VEGAS — The day still haunts A’ja Wilson.She was competing with her University of South Carolina women’s basketball teammates in an intrasquad scrimmage, but Coach Dawn Staley didn’t think Wilson was playing with enough effort. Staley stopped the practice, told Wilson to stand on the sideline and replaced her.As the scrimmage continued, Staley told Wilson that she was “blending in” — looking merely average on the court. Wilson’s team began losing and she begged the Gamecocks’ other coaches to talk Staley into putting her back on the court, but Staley never did. Wilson and her losing team had to run the length of the court multiple times after practice, with Wilson cursing and muttering in frustration the entire way.“She looked like everybody else,” Staley said. “And A’ja Wilson? Like, come on now. I don’t care if we are in college. That’s not what we’re going to do. That’s not what I’m going to be a part of. I ain’t one of your friends that’s just going to let you fail and let you exist.”Wilson shunned Staley for the next two days, not saying a word to her at practice or in meetings. Eventually, they made peace with some help from Wilson’s mother, whom Staley called for help during their brief silence. But even while Wilson was upset, she knew that Staley was right.“She showed me that I can never be average,” Wilson said. “I can never blend. I should always stick out whenever someone’s watching a basketball game.”That moment became a turning point for Wilson, who is now one of the best players in the W.N.B.A. at only 26 years old. She is in the W.N.B.A. finals with the Las Vegas Aces, who drafted her No. 1 overall in 2018. She has won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award twice, including this season, when she was also named the defensive player of the year. She has yet to win a championship, but the Aces were leading the Connecticut Sun, 1-0, in the best-of-five finals series heading into Game 2 on Tuesday.Staley has been in her ear the whole time.Wilson, left, became the best women’s basketball player in South Carolina history under Staley, right. They won a national championship together in 2017.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressWhat began as a coach recruiting a top high school player has blossomed into Wilson claiming Staley as her “second mother” and Staley accepting that role with her version of tough love, which includes providing equal amounts of affection and rebuke.“We have lots of laughs,” Staley said. “I’ve wiped tears. I’ve hugged on her. I’ve loved up on her. I’ve criticized her. We are just authentic, and it just organically happened.”Wilson thinks about being pulled from that college scrimmage almost every day, she said. “Never blend” has become somewhat of a motto for her, and it was top of mind after a disappointing performance in the Aces’ loss in Game 1 of the semifinals against the Seattle Storm.Wilson scored just 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting and was outplayed by the star Seattle forward Breanna Stewart, who scored 24 points.“There’s no reason people should be like, ‘Oh, A’ja played today?’ I should be making myself known,” Wilson said.She responded by averaging 30 points and 12.3 rebounds over the next three games of the series to help the Aces advance to the finals.Wilson played all but 4 minutes 6 seconds of the 165 possible minutes during that series, a stat that, along with her response to Game 1, showed Staley how much Wilson had evolved since her time at South Carolina.“She could have never done that in college,” Staley said while laughing. “I mean, she could’ve but wouldn’t have been as effective or great.”Wilson is the best player in South Carolina women’s basketball history. She was the national player of the year as a senior, finishing first in points, blocked shots and free throws made in a career at South Carolina. In 2021, the college erected a statue of her outside of the basketball gym.She seamlessly transitioned to the W.N.B.A., averaging 20.7 points per game in her first season, when she was unanimously selected for the Rookie of the Year Award.But there are still times when Staley has to remind Wilson that she is blending in, most recently during halftime of Game 1 of the finals Sunday. On paper, Wilson wasn’t having a bad game; she scored 12 points in the first quarter, and despite a difficult second period, the Aces were losing by just 4 points. But when she got to the locker room, Wilson checked her phone and saw a message from Staley: “One rebound, seriously?”Wilson had two rebounds, but she knew Staley’s underlying point was right. “So I had to go out there and get me more,” Wilson said while laughing. “Seriously because I’m like, ‘No, she’s not going to disrespect me like that.’” (Wilson finished with 11 rebounds and the win.)Texts like those are normal from Staley, who has been Wilson’s biggest critic since her South Carolina days but says she’s also Wilson’s biggest “hype man.” Staley talks to Wilson at least once a week about basketball and strategy ahead of matchups.“I tell her when she sucks, but I also tell her ‘ain’t nobody can stop you,’” Staley said. “She’s too agile. She’s too quick. She’s too strong. She can score baskets; her midrange is wet.” She added while laughing: “Her 3-ball is, you know, under construction, but it’s solid. There’s no reason she shouldn’t average a double-double.”Wilson and Staley’s bond started when Wilson was a senior at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, S.C., just a few miles south of the University of South Carolina campus. Staley had been recruiting Wilson, then the No. 1 high school player in the country, and she used to call Wilson weekly — so much so that she had scheduled separate weekly calls with Wilson and another with her mother, Eva. So when Wilson arrived as a freshman at South Carolina, she and Staley already had a bond beyond basketball that intensified as they argued, lost big games and won South Carolina women’s basketball’s first national championship together.Wilson and Staley reunited as (official) player and coach with the U.S. women’s national team during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“I can talk to her without being politically correct,” Wilson said. “I can be me. Like, I can just be myself, and she’s helped me out a ton.”Their relationship often spills onto social media, like when the two were on Instagram live last year, and Staley needled Wilson about her rebounding. “I’m just glad you rebounding the ball. You can’t even get to a double-double!” Staley said to Wilson and nearly 700 viewers. “I mean, you’re averaging like nine. How can you be short of a double-double with like nine rebounds? Who does that? Even that thing out!”Or after the Aces defeated the Storm in the semifinals, and Staley told Wilson on Twitter that they would be going to a popular shopping mall in Las Vegas, seemingly implying that it would be her treat. But she apparently meant it would be Wilson’s.“I love hard, and I show tough love,” Staley said. “I try to create a balance so that players like A’ja can get an understanding of how to go from good to great. If you want to be great, and you tell me that, I’m going to hold you up to that as best I can — and she knows that.” More

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      Brittney Griner’s Supporters Have a New Strategy to Free Her: Make Noise

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      Those close to Griner pursued a strategy of silence after her detention in Russia in February, hoping to avoid politicizing her case. Now they are amping up public pressure, with some of it aimed at President Biden.Her face is on hoodies. Her name is in hashtags. Her “B.G.” and number are on fans’ jerseys and W.N.B.A. courts.As the Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner waits in Russia, detained since Feb. 17 on drug charges, symbols of support for her are all around. They come from people who don’t know her at all and people who know and love her — from teammates, sympathizers and former coaches.Dawn Staley, who coached Griner and her U.S. teammates to a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics last year, said she thinks about her every day.“I know Brittney, I’ve been around her, know her heart. I know what she’s about,” Staley said. “And if she’s being wrongfully detained or not, I would be advocating for her release because nobody should be in a foreign country locked up abroad.”Staley has posted messages on Twitter about Griner every day since early May. “Can you please free our friend,” she wrote on Tuesday, tagging the official account for the White House. She added, “All of her loved ones would sleep a little easier.”It has been more than three months since Griner was detained, accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. But only in the last few weeks has there been a coordinated public campaign by W.N.B.A. players and by Griner’s wife, family, friends and agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, to push for her release. That’s where the hoodies — worn by many different players — and the initials — displayed on W.N.B.A. courts — come in. The #WeAreBG hashtag seen on warm-up shirts and social media is also part of the campaign.On Saturday, the W.N.B.A. players’ union posted messaging on social media marking the 100th day of Griner’s detention.Decals with Griner’s No. 42 and initials are on each court in the W.N.B.A.Jennifer Buchanan/The Seattle Times, via Associated PressThe delay in starting the campaign was strategic: Griner’s camp was worried that publicity could make the situation worse because of tensions between Russia and the United States, including the war in Ukraine. But the delay has also been a source of frustration for women’s basketball players known for their social justice advocacy. Their approach has changed since the State Department said on May 3 that it had determined that Griner had been “wrongfully detained.”“Griner’s reclassification as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government cued our shift to the more public activist elements of our strategy,” Kagawa Colas said, adding that she could not elaborate out of respect for the sensitivity of the situation.Supporters have quickly joined in the new approach.“We’re more public,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union. One reason, she said, was the State Department’s determination, and another was the guidance of Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner.“She’s lead on this,” Jackson said. “She signaled through her team that she needed us, and that’s all we needed to hear.”Cherelle Griner appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and appealed to President Biden to intervene.“I just keep hearing that he has the power,” Cherelle Griner said. “She’s a political pawn. If they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”The State Department’s announcement this month said that Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs would lead an interagency team to secure Griner’s release. But since then, Griner’s detention has been extended until June 18, and the Biden administration has said little about its maneuvering. Cherelle Griner said during the television interview that her only communication with her wife had been through occasional letters. She said she had been told that her wife’s release was a top priority, but she expressed skepticism.Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, has been speaking publicly about Brittney Griner’s detention and working with her representatives. He said Griner, who is from Houston, has had access to her attorney in Russia but has not been able to speak with her family. That violated international norms, he said.“The Russians need to be aware that we know what they’re doing, we know why they’re doing it and there will be consequences if anything should happen to her,” Allred said.Griner’s family and friends have sought to pressure Russia and Biden while also pleading for more support and news coverage in the United States.“There’s not enough conversations being had about Brittney and her release and just any talks of it,” said Staley, the women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. “And I know there’s a process. I get that.”She added later: “There’s so many people that really know Brittney that aren’t doing anything, that aren’t sympathizing with the situation. I just want people to feel like it’s their loved one. And when you feel like it’s your loved one you would do anything to help. Everybody’s got to live their life, I get that, but come on. Empathize.”Fans have waged their own public campaign for Griner, even when those closest to her used a strategy of silence.Darryl Webb/Associated PressSeveral players in the W.N.B.A., and a few in the N.B.A., have begun publicly advocating Griner’s release; in the first two and a half months after Griner’s detention most had said only that they loved and missed her.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, who was named the league’s most valuable player in 2018, posts daily on Twitter about Griner. DeWanna Bonner, who plays for the Connecticut Sun and was Griner’s teammate in Phoenix from 2013 to 2019, brought up Griner during a recent news conference.“One more thing,” she said. “Free B.G. We are B.G. We love B.G. Free her.”In mid-May, the W.N.B.A. players’ union became an official partner on a Change.org petition addressed to the White House, which urged Biden to do “whatever is necessary” to bring Griner home safely. The petition was started in March by Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist who has written for several media outlets, including The New York Times, about the W.N.B.A. Griner’s representatives at Wasserman promoted the petition to news outlets.In an interview with ESPN on May 17, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver was asked what role the league should play in Griner’s situation. The N.B.A. owns 42.1 percent of the W.N.B.A.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More

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      No. 1 South Carolina Gets a Statement Win Over No. 2 UConn

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      The Gamecocks dominated in the second half and gained only the second win in 11 games against Connecticut in the history of the two programs.In a matchup of the two highest-ranked teams in women’s basketball, the University of South Carolina overwhelmed the University of Connecticut in the fourth quarter for a 73-57 victory on Monday in the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.This was the first time a women’s competition had been part of the prestigious tournament, which has existed since 2011 for men.The decisive victory gave South Carolina a 2-9 record against UConn in the history of the programs, and it should preserve the Gamecocks’ No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 poll. To accommodate the high-profile matchup, the A.P. delayed its weekly poll update for just the second time ever.The rout also offers clues about how these two teams might fare later in the season, both during their next regular season game against each other — in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 27 — and through the deep postseason runs both teams are expected to make toward the Final Four.Despite remarkable performances from the teams’ stars, the story of the game lay in its fundamentals: turnovers and offensive rebounds.The Huskies (3-1) went into halftime with a 3-point lead but could not generate any points from turnovers or offensive rebounds during the second half. The Gamecocks (6-0) forced 19 turnovers, capitalizing on them for 21 points.“We just took the shots they gave us,” South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley said on ESPN after the game.UConn’s sloppiness, uncharacteristic of the long-dominant program, is something that the team, particularly its young core, will have to work on.“We’ve got a long time before we go down there and play them again,” Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma told reporters after the game. “But right now, they’re better than us. We’re going to have to work really, really hard.”The Gamecocks, in contrast, played sharp and turned to their signature defense in the second half, allowing Connecticut to score just 3 points in the fourth quarter against tight man-to-man coverage.The junior forward Aliyah Boston nearly had a double-double in the first half, and ended the game with 22 points and 15 rebounds — the kind of performance that South Carolina is relying on her to deliver throughout the season.“It’s time for Aliyah Boston to be the dominant player she is,” Staley said.The guards Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson are the other two keys to the South Carolina offense. Cooke had 17 points worth of circus shots, while Henderson’s veteran savvy manifested in speedy transition baskets and a well-balanced stat line of 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals.Overall, the team showed its depth — and that it has ample room to grow. If, for example, the Gamecocks can get Kamilla Cardoso, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Syracuse, more involved in the paint, they might have an easy answer for a tough interior defense like Connecticut’s.This was the first big test of the season for the Huskies. UConn guard Paige Bueckers, the team’s leading scorer, delivered a number of showstopping baskets, and in the first half the Huskies’ ball movement looked nearly transcendent. That rhythm, though, disintegrated in the second half, when only Bueckers had more than one field goal.Connecticut will have plenty of shooters ready to help, though, once it reduces some of its more basic mistakes. The redshirt senior guard Evina Westbrook was the spark for the Connecticut offense early, and the team’s second leading scorer. With more opportunities, she might be able to lift some of the offensive load off Bueckers.Azzi Fudd, a highly regarded freshman, barely played Monday after scoring 18 points against the University of South Florida on Sunday, a decision Auriemma attributed to her inability to move within South Carolina’s stifling defense. With more time in college basketball’s big leagues, though, Fudd might become a consistent scoring threat.Connecticut needs to fix its flaws in the coming months if it wants to establish the kind of dominance that for more than decades has made it the foremost team in women’s college basketball.In Monday’s win, the Gamecocks didn’t reveal such shortcomings. The adjustments they needed could be handled during the game and not left for a future practice.The road to the Final Four won’t be easy for any team in the sport. But with this statement victory, South Carolina suggested that is firmly on course. More

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      ‘I Surely Can Stand in Front of Men and Lead Them’

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      With women being mentioned for open head coaching vacancies, the N.B.A. seems primed to break one glass ceiling in sports.It’s about time.The N.B.A. sits poised to be the first American men’s professional sports league to hire a woman as a head coach.The bond is there, boosted by the league’s growing group of assistants who are women and its siblinglike connection to the W.N.B.A.The N.B.A.’s players have shown a clear willingness to be led by women. Just ask Michele Roberts, the head of their powerful union.Job openings are plentiful. There are head coach postings in Orlando, Indiana, Portland and Boston.This time around, there are women among the candidates, and that’s a sea change not just for the N.B.A. but for all of sport.It’s bound to happen. If not this year, then hopefully in the next few.Will a woman running an N.B.A. team from the bench shatter the glass ceiling? Not quite. Not until women are regularly hired for such positions.More than that, true advancement will come only if trailblazing in the men’s game is just one of many opportunities for women to coach at any level — including college basketball and the W.N.B.A.Still, think of the powerful message that would be sent by that first N.B.A. hire: The leadership of a billion-dollar franchise and some of the most famous male athletes on the planet entrusted to a woman.“It would be huge,” Dawn Staley said. “We just need the right situation.”She has the bona fides to speak up.Enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame after a stellar playing career, Staley, 51, is now the head coach of the U.S. women’s Olympic team and the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team, a perennial power. She is also one of the most prominent Black women in coaching.“There are a lot of women good enough” to lead an N.B.A. team, Staley said.Kara Lawson was an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics during the 2019-20 season before departing to become head coach of the Duke women’s basketball team.Michael Dwyer/Associated PressBecky Hammon is one. She’s got insider credentials, having spent several years as Gregg Popovich’s assistant in San Antonio. In the N.B.A., that’s like being at the right hand of God.Duke’s Kara Lawson is another. She was a favorite of Brad Stevens, the former coach of the Celtics and their current president of basketball operations, during her stint as an assistant in Boston, and is reportedly on the team’s radar.What about Staley herself? A bold tactician and motivator, she is more than capable of making the leap. That’s why I sought her wisdom.When we spoke, she made it clear she wasn’t campaigning for an N.B.A. job. She treasures her team at South Carolina, which she has led to three Final Fours since 2015 and a national title in 2017.“I come with a lot of credentials,” she said. “I surely have the confidence. I surely can stand in front of men and lead them. First-team All-Stars. M.V.P.s. I’m OK with that.”More than OK, given the firm tone in her voice as she said that.What about the absence of N.B.A. experience?“I haven’t coached in the league,” Staley said, forthright. “But you know what? I’m a quick learn. I’m a quick learn.”It’s a frequent jab when talk of great female coaches helming men’s teams gets too serious — as if there haven’t been plenty of men who have led N.B.A. teams without spending time in the league. (Case in point: Stevens, who took over the Celtics after a coaching career spent entirely in college.)That common criticism prompted me to wonder what other red herrings could be thrown in the path of a female hire. What will it be like, I asked Staley, for the first woman to break through in the N.B.A.?The first woman will no doubt have plenty of supporters, she said. But there will also be knuckle-draggers who still believe that no matter what the sport, a woman cannot effectively lead male stars.“A lot of people would be out there, just waiting for you to make a mistake, waiting for you to be wrong,” she said. “There’s a whole dynamic that men, white or Black, just don’t have to think about. It’s a female thing. The expectation will be so much greater than the male coach. So much greater.”Female coaches at every level and in every sport are used to unfair scrutiny of everything from their looks to the way they speak to their strategies. The trailblazing coach will face obstacles that bring to mind those of other “firsts” who broke down barriers in sports.The city and fan base will also need to be prepared to embrace change — particularly, given the tangle of racism and sexism in America, if the coach is a Black woman.Being the first has a deep resonance that can spread far and wide, but there’s nuance to the battle for equality that women are fighting on all fronts.We can take a cue from Staley, who in our conversation noted repeatedly how happy she is at South Carolina. She sees herself in women’s college basketball for the long haul, teaching, cajoling and “getting young women ready to go to the W.N.B.A., so our W.N.B.A. can be around for another 25 years.”And a cue from the recently retired Muffet McGraw, the other Hall of Famer I spoke with last week.Muffet McGraw, center right, said women leading N.B.A. teams is “not something I even care about.” Late in her 33-year career at Notre Dame, she decided to hire only assistants who were women.Jessica Hill/Associated PressWomen leading N.B.A. teams, she said, is “not something I even care about.”“I want women coaching women,” she added. When it comes to men’s pro basketball, “I want to see those women going off to the N.B.A. and being great assistants and then coming back and taking over women’s jobs in college and the pros.”Her candor was no surprise.In her 33 years of coaching women’s basketball at Notre Dame, McGraw won a pair of national championships and turned her team into a venerable power. She also gained a reputation for speaking out about the need to have women in positions of leadership and for backing it up: As her career evolved, she decided to hire female assistants only.McGraw pointed out how much work remained to be done. In 1972, at the dawn of Title IX, the landmark law that created a pathway for gender equality on college campuses, 90 percent of the head coaches in women’s college sports were female. Then, slowly but surely, as the fame in women’s sports increased, along with the pay, men began taking over.By 2019, the numbers had dipped to around 40 percent in the highest division of college sports overall — and around 60 percent in Division I women’s basketball.It’s hardly better in the W.N.B.A. Despite its reputation as a bastion of empowerment, the 12-team league has only five female head coaches.There are too few female coaches at all levels and all sports, from elementary age through high school and beyond. “Why is it,” McGraw wondered, “that when your kid goes out to play soccer and they are age 5 and 6, it’s so rare to see someone’s mom coaching the team? And then you get older, it’s almost always a guy. So it’s no wonder that there’s a stereotype in there. You’re led to believe that when you think of a leader you think of a man.“That has to change.”Glass ceilings are everywhere for women. Shattering them in men’s professional basketball would be an important start in shattering them all. More