Dawn Staley to the Knicks? Legendary coach has ties to team

The New York Knicks have been without a head coach for nearly a month.

The movement on the gig — at least after five teams reportedly rebuffed New York’s requests to interview their head coaches — has been quiet. Over the weeks, former Kings coach Mike Brown and former Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins have appeared to progress through the interview process.

Then, over the weekend, a rumor surfaced that the Knicks had reached out to South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley. On Monday, South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati confirmed the report to Lulu Kesin of The Greenvile News, a part of the USA TODAY Network. Winner of three national championships over the last nine seasons, Staley is widely considered to be one of the all-time great coaches in women’s college basketball history.

Does Dawn Staley fit with the New York Knicks?

Quite well, despite her lack of NBA experience. A lot of that is because of her connection to New York’s star player.

All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson signed a team-friendly contract extension last July, locking him up with the team through at least the 2027-28 season, with a player option for the following year. Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, is an assistant coach who has been with the Knicks since 2022.

And while Rick Brunson has deep ties to former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, his son’s security with New York strongly implies that any new head coach would retain him as an assistant.

This is where Staley comes in. Staley, who is from Philadelphia, coached at Temple from 2000-08, before she took the South Carolina job. Rick Brunson played four seasons with the Owls from 1991-95.

Although they didn’t overlap, Staley and Brunson’s Temple ties have linked the families for years.

Prior to a Knicks-76ers first-round playoff game Sunday, April 28, 2024, Staley was honored pre-game and rang a ceremonial bell before tipoff. Moments before the Knicks were set to take the floor, Jalen Brunson hugged Staley, who had been chatting with Rick Brunson.

After the Knicks defeated Philadelphia in the series, Staley then posted a message on social media with two images showing Knicks gear that the Brunsons sent Staley as part of a care package. A third image showed Jalen and his sister, Erica, as children, posing with Staley, dated November 13, 2004.

“Can’t beat em join them,” Staley wrote before including laughing emojis. “Thank you to my @nyknicks peeps for sending the NY love package!  Thank you Rick!  Thank you Jalen! Family for life!  Win that ish!!”

And while New York’s players haven’t commented publicly about any potential interest in Staley taking over the Knicks, center Karl-Anthony Towns did make light over the weekend of his foul trouble issues by responding to a social media post that referenced Staley coaching the Knicks.

The original message contained a video of a visibly frustrated Staley gesturing on the bench with the caption: “Dawn Staley when KAT picks up his 3^rd foul in the first quarter.”

Towns replied only with a crying while laughing emoji.

Dawn Staley coaching style

Staley is known for being a tough and demanding coach who prioritizes relationship-building and finding human connections. An outspoken proponent of her Christian faith, Staley has often modeled her philosophies on moral lessons present in Christian teaching. She has called herself “an expert in body language” and trusts her observational skills when making decisions.

On the court, Staley’s teams have emphasized defense — particularly in the paint — and transition opportunities. In that way, her teams have held some similarities to Thibodeau’s Knicks.

Staley also relies on game flow and empowers her players to work through issues during cold spells. This is one area where Thibodeau was often criticized for failing to call timeouts in a timely fashion. Staley has been notoriously selective — if not avoidant — of using timeouts during runs, both bad and good.

Her teams thrive when they have a strong point guard who can take over games. With her familiarity with Jalen Brunson and his ability to shoulder significant responsibility on the floor, her philosophies would appear to align in New York.

Dawn Staley NBA experience

During the 2021 offseason, the Portland Trail Blazers interviewed Staley over Zoom for their then-open head coaching vacancy. Staley spoke about the experience during an August 12, 2021 episode of the “Tea With A & Phee” podcast with A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier.

“I had never had an ounce of me that wanted to coach in the WNBA or NBA, until somebody sought me out, like the Portland Trail Blazers,” Staley said during the episode.

“When you’re being sought out, you have to vet it a little bit to see if they’re really serious about it. I thought they treated me like a real candidate. Whether or not they seriously considered me, I felt like it wasn’t a fluke. So I agreed to do it.”

Staley added that there were about five people interviewing her and that the questions focused on managing players and dealing with their behavior, as opposed to questions about technical basketball strategy.

“It was really a great experience,” she said. “I took a lot of notes because if another female is ever in that position, I got the notes, and I’m going to give them everything that they asked me: how I answered it and what they said.”

This story was updated with new information.

Contributing: Lulu Kesin, Greenville News.