Dawn Staley Net Worth

Net Worth	$ 1,000,000
Real name	Dawn Michelle Staley
Source of Wealth	WNBA, Coaching
Profession	Basketball Player, Coach
Spouse/Partner	Unknown
Date of Birth	May 4, 1970
Zodiac	Taurus
Age	53
Gender	Female
Height	168 cm / 5 ft 6 inch
Nationality	American

Biography

Dawn Staley is an American WNBA player and coach, who has won the WNBA All-Star game 6 times.

Dawn is a part of the Hall of Fame players, and is one of the most popular female basketball players in the history of the WNBA.

Dawn Staley’s net worth is estimated at $1 million as of 2022.

Early life

Dawn grew up in the Raymond Rosen project in Philadelphia in a big family. Her father, Clarence Staley, and mother, Estelle Staley, had five children altogether.

She started playing basketball with her brothers in her neighborhood, and slowly started to fall in love with the sport. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, she stated that she had a rough childhood living in the projects, and the only way to stay out of trouble was to play basketball with her older brothers. During those times, she quickly learned she was able to take on much bigger boys, especially considering she is only 5’ 6”, which gave her the push she needed to pursue her basketball career.

She finished high school at Dobbins Vocational Technical High School, where she was the captain of the ‘Lady Mustangs,’ and by the time she was a senior, she received the National Player of the Year award, with an average of 33.1 points per game.

As a result of being awarded by USA Today as the high school player of the year, she got scouted by the University of Virginia’s women’s basketball coach - Debbie Ryan. She studied college at the University of Virginia, where she led the ‘Lady Cavaliers’, ultimately reaching four NCAA tournaments, three NCAA Final Four, and three ACC tournament titles, before graduating in 1992.^[1]

A post shared by Dawn Staley (@staley05)

Career

When Dawn graduated from college, there were no professional leagues for women in the States, so she moved to Segovia, Spain, during the ‘92/’92 season. She signed several other deals in Brazil, Italy, and France, before finally returning to the US, and joining a team that played in Goodwill Games and world basketball championships.

As a result, she was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 1994, and by 1996, she joined the American Olympic basketball team, which got her three gold medals. This helped Dawn to gain a fanbase and make a name for herself in the women’s basketball sphere. She then signed an endorsement contract with Nike, and they sponsored a seven-story mural of her in her hometown.

In 1997, Staley started playing for the Richmond Rage team in the newly-formed American Basketball League. She was named ABL All-Star twice, and her average scores were double digits in almost every game.

In 1998, she was drafted for the Charlotte Stings in the WNBA, averaging 11.5 points per game. In 2000, she was a part of the team that won the 2000 Olympic gold medal, followed by a strong season with Charlotte Stings.

What most of her fanbase is praising her for is the fact that she used a fair portion of her time and resources to sponsor an after-school sports program in Philadelphia, trying to help out ambitious youth from the place she grew up in.

In 2000/01, she accepted a job offer to become a basketball coach at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which kicked off a new era in her life. The team at Temple reached 19 wins and 11 losses in Dawn’s first coaching season, but they hadn’t had a winning season since ‘89/’90. The team made it to NCAA; by 2006, Temple University was in the top 20 women’s basketball teams in the States.

In 2004, Staley played the Olympics for the third time in her career and brought home her third gold medal. In 2005, she transferred to the Houston Comets, and got signed the next year, but continued coaching the college league at Temple University. As a result, she was among the first coaching choices for the Olympic team in 2008 and 2012.

After getting traded for the Comets, she announced that she planned to retire after the season, and the Comets lost in the playoffs to the Sacramento Monarchs, which is how Staley’s career in the WNBA came to an end.

In 2008, Dawn left Temple and transferred to the University of South Carolina, where she created a brand new program. Her first two seasons with South Carolina weren’t as good as expected, but by 2021, she managed to get them to their third Final Four, where they lost the game to Stanford, with a final result of 66-65. In 2021, she signed a seven-year $22.4 million contract with South Carolina, which made her the highest-paid Black college basketball coach in the country.

In 2022, she got the team to #1 in all polls, when they defeated 14 teams - Stanford, Tennessee, Georgia, Maryland, Duke, UConn, Oregon, LSU, NC State, and several others.^[2]

Personal life

Being the youngest of five children, Dawn Staley had a rough childhood living in the projects. She created the Dawn Staley Foundation, dedicated to helping middle schoolers do better in academics and sports by sponsoring basketball leagues.

She has stated she has a partner, but she never disclosed the name. Dawn has been the subject of gossip for many years now, and people often debate her sexual orientation, many claiming that she is gay. Dawn hasn’t made any official statements on the subject, so we can’t say for sure anything about her dating history.

Conclusion

Dawn Staley is an American WNBA former basketball player, who now works as a women’s basketball coach at the University of South Carolina.

In 2021, she became the highest-paid Black college basketball coach in the country, after signing a $22.4 million contract.

As of 2022, her net worth is estimated at $1 million.

References