Dawn Staley

We serve an unbelievable God - we serve an unbelievable God.

Our teammates can learn from each other through communication. There are conversations that we have to be able to have in our locker rooms. They have to be had. They're necessary for all of us to grow socially and culturally.

We need a unifier in the position of the most powerful person in the world.

Black women in coaching positions are held to higher standards - especially because there are so few opportunities. There are stereotypes we have to navigate - like being the angry Black woman - even on the sidelines.

My mother grew up in South Carolina. This was the 1940s and early '50s. Segregation was still legal. Separate bathrooms. All of it.

If I never won another championship but my legacy was that - to have changed the face of opportunity and united communities - I'd take that over most other things in this world.

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.

You have to let young people be who they are. You have to guide them and navigate them through this world.

I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport.

We're very fortunate to be a part of it. We get to witness firsthand the legacy of Caitlin Clark. You watch her. You prep for her. You can't help but to really love how she dissects the game. You love how she executes. Her game is simple and yet powerful.

I was really good in college, never won a championship.

I said, 'If you don't know there's a God then something's wrong with you' - if I said, 'If you don't watch women's basketball, something's seriously wrong with you,' would you take it as threatening as somebody took the other one? I mean, it's a figure of speech. If you can't comprehend that, then tune me out.

God is funny like that, He is funny. He rips your heart and He makes you believe. He makes you believe the unimaginable.

If you don't like something, if you don't like the laws that we have to live by, you gotta get out and vote.

Even after my players are done with their college careers, I keep caring for them and wanting the best for them. I have strong relationships with my players, whether they transfer to our school or transfer out to another school.

When I became a coach, I think I was prepared, having come from North Philadelphia which helped shape me, and from all my years as a player.

I grew up in a disciplined household, and I have never been afraid of working hard.

I know basketball. I don't think basketball changes a whole lot.

I'm not one that really has a huge social life.

When I was a player, I only got a chance to impact and be impacted by a small group of people on a team. As a coach now I get to impact my current players, my former players, the entire women's basketball community.

I would like to have a few more championships.

I'm not a glamor shot girl.

We need to think about women's basketball like the stock market: it grows over time, and you have to put something in to see a return on your investment.

What if everyone who loved women's basketball took the time every day to say or tweet just one thing about the game? Think about how that could catch on. If you love the game, I know it will love you back.

It's flattering when you can make the game look as easy that anybody can do it. That's when you've arrived.

For me, I've always taken the back seat to the superstars - to the Lisa Leslies, to the Yolanda Griffiths, all of them. I've always taken the back seat to that because I'm not into that.

I deal with young people's goals and dreams, and I don't take that lightly, so I just tell them how it is. I tell the parents how it is. It's the way that I have had to coach because I don't want to instill falsehoods in their heads.

The way I approach basketball is the way that my mother approached her spirituality and her faith - she went hard.

My lifelong dream was to be an Olympian and a gold medalist - and I got it at 26.

My proudest moment is my ability to take care of my mother.

I want to pave the way for little girls and little boys who look like me. That's not to draw any racial lines or anything - but I know where I came from, I know the limitations that are placed on people who grow up like I grew up and I know the hopelessness that's in our communities.

You have to let young people be who they are. But you also have to guide and navigate them.

There are plenty of times when I thought we should've won a national championship, but we didn't.

Whether you're white, whether you're old, whether you're young, whether you're Black or old or young or whether you're of a different race, we are all treated very, very, very differently - some good, some bad, some ugly. And that is fact. That is not me pulling stuff out of the air.

There's a world going on outside of us that we play a part in - whether or not people want us to shut up and dribble.

It's my nature just to teach, help and simplify basketball, that's my mentality. To not make the game so hard. It's really an easy game once you understand how to play it, and that's what I want to leave to other players.

I've always enjoyed playing here playing in the Garden. I've always enjoyed the atmosphere in New York.

I know my role is integral to a team. I know just being a point guard and making sure that everyone is happy is key. And nobody can really take that away.

I owe basketball. I'm forever indebted to it. It engulfed my life for the positive. The game has gotten more of my time than my friends and my family. I feel like on a smaller or larger scale, it can impact my players' lives in some kind of way.

Growing up, I didn't ever think I was going to go to college because, financially, my parents just couldn't handle it.

I don't do anything but play basketball and watch it.

I didn't have a job in high school. Basketball was work for me; I put in enough hours that it could have been a job. But I didn't really look at it like that. It was the thing I was drawn to the most and the thing that gave me the most satisfaction.

When I got a letter from a college in eighth grade saying something about basketball - I think it might have even just been a camp brochure - it clicked something in my mind that basketball was the sport I should focus on, because it could be the most opportunity for me to get a college scholarship.

As a kid, I played not just basketball but baseball, softball, tackle football - anything the guys were playing, I wanted to play.

Coaching - teaching the game - came relatively easy. I connected extremely well with the players.

I'm an example for living for what you love.

I never wanted to be a coach. But sometimes you think you know what you want, and then life happens.

Covering women's college basketball means covering women's college basketball: the ups, the downs, the surprises, the disappointments, the old rivalries, the new rivalries, the star players, the role players - all of it.

As a coach, you always hope for certain things in a team.

I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood. My high school and my junior high school were both predominantly black.