South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s book “Uncommon Favor,” a memoir in which Staley recounts growing up in North Philadelphia, playing college and pro hoops, and coaching in the college ranks, was released this week. The Athletic read an advanced copy and chatted with Staley about the book.
(Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.)
What made now the right time to write this book?
People have been asking me to write a book for a very long time. Over the past three years, I’ve thought more about it. It got birthed from when I was on “The Breakfast Club” when we won in 2022. (Host) Charlamagne Tha God, he asked me if I wanted to write a book. I gave the old, “Yeah, one day I will write a book.” But he just kept following up and kept following up.
When we won last year, I was just like, “This might be it.” We had talked about maybe doing it, but it was a soft yes. It wasn’t like a hard yes, let’s get it done. Once we had the type of year that we had last year, I was like, “This might be the perfect time, because we went undefeated with the unlikeliest team. Something is special about this moment in my life, and it might be a good time to just kind of bear down and get it done.”
It was his persistence, from somebody…
