What Is Dawn Staley's Net Worth and Salary?
Dawn Staley is an American professional basketball player and coach who has a net worth of $12 million. Dawn Staley was named the national high school player of the year as a senior at Murrell Dobbins Tech High School. She attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and led her team to four NCAA Tournaments, including three Finals Fours and a national championship game. Staley was named the ACC Female Athlete of the Year and the National Player of the Year. Her #24 jersey is retired at UVA. Dawn played professional basketball in France, Italy, Spain, and Brazil before joining the Richmond Rage of the American Basketball League in 1996. She was drafted #9 by the Charlotte Sting in the 1999 WNBA Draft, and she played for the team from 1999 to 2005 before being traded to the Houston Comets, where she finished her playing career from 2005 to 2006. Staley was a six-time WNBA All-Star from 2001 to 2006. She won the Woman One Award in 2005 and was runner-up for the Wooden Cup Award.
Dawn has also competed for the United States and has won gold medals at the 1991 World University Games, 1992 Jones Cup, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, 2004 Athens Olympic games, and 2000 FIBA World Championships. She became an assistant coach for the USA National team in 2006. As a coach, Staley went on to win two more gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2007 Pan American Games. She was head coach at Temple University from 2000 to 2008, and she has been coaching for the University of South Carolina since 2008. Dawn led the USC women's basketball team to its first #1 ranking in 2014, and under her leadership, the Gamecocks have won eight Sweet Sixteen tournaments, SEC tournament championships, and regular season championships, five Final Four tournaments, and three NCAA championships (aka Women's March Madness).
Salary and Contracts
In October 2021, Dawn signed a seven-year, $22.4 million contract with South Carolina. That contract made her the highest-paid black head coach in women's college basketball history, and one of the highest-paid overall in women's sports. On an average annual basis, she earns $3.2 million per year. The contract includes performance bonuses that could up her annual salary by as much as $700k per year.
(Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
Early Life
Dawn Staley was born Dawn Michelle Staley on May 4, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Estelle and Clarence Staley. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father worked part-time as a carpenter. Dawn grew up with four siblings, sister Tracey and brothers Anthony, Lawrence, and Eric. Staley played basketball at Murrell Dobbins Vocational High School, where she was named national high school player of the year as a senior.
Playing Career
Dawn attended the University of Virginia, where she earned a Rhetoric and Communication Studies degree and was instrumental in the basketball team making it to four NCAA tournaments as well as three Final Four tournaments and a national championship game. In 1991 and 1992, Staley was named the National Player of the Year and the ACC Female Athlete of the Year. She scored more than 2,100 points during her college career, and her 454 career steals were an NCAA record (which was later broken by Natalie White). When Dawn graduated from UVA, she was the scoring leader in the history of the school, and she was the all-time ACC assist leader (729). From 1994 to 1995, she played professional basketball in Italy, France, Spain, and Brazil, then she joined the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team. She was chosen for the team that represented the U.S. at the 1991 World University Games, and they won a gold medal. Teams Staley played on also won gold medals at the 1992 Jones Cup, the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympic Games, and the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. In 1994, Dawn was honored as the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year, and in 1996, Team USA was undefeated. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Staley was chosen to carry the American flag during the opening ceremony's parade of nations.
In 1996, Dawn joined the American Basketball League team the Richmond Rage, and the team made it the ABL finals the following year. She was named to the All-ABL first team for the1996–97 season and the All-ABL second team for the 1997–98 season. During the 1999 WNBA Draft, Staley was selected by the Charlotte Sting as the ninth overall pick. She led the team to the WNBA playoffs' championship game in 2001. She was traded to the Houston Comets in August 2005, and before the season began, she announced that she would retire after the season ended. The team made it to the playoffs but were defeated by the Sacramento Monarchs. In 2011, WBNA fans voted Dawn one of the 15 best players in the league's 15-year history.
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Coaching Career
Staley became the head coach of the women's basketball team at Temple University in Philadelphia during the 2000–01 season. The Temple Owls won the Atlantic 10 tournament in 2001, 2002 and 2004, which qualified them for the NCAA tournament. The team had a 28–4 record during the 2004–05 season, and during the A-10 semifinals, Dawn became the fastest women's basketball coach to win 100 games. When she left Temple for the University of South Carolina in 2008, the team's record was 172–80, and the Owls had played in six NCAA tournaments and won four Atlantic 10 titles. After Staley moved to USC, the Gamecocks had two losing seasons, but by the 2014–15 season, the team was #1 in the rankings and made it to the Final Four. The 2016–17 season was the team's third consecutive season as SEC regular-season champions as well as tournament champions, and they played in the Final Four again, winning the first national title in the history of USC. Dawn was the second African-American coach, after Purdue's Carolyn Peck to lead a women's college basketball team to a national championship, and "The Post and Courier" subsequently named her one of the "25 most powerful people in South Carolina sports."
Since Staley has started coaching the Gamecocks, the team has won eight SEC tournaments and five Final Four tournaments, and Dawn has been named SEC Coach of the Year seven times. In 2020, the team's record was 32–1, and in October 2021, Staley signed a seven-year contract extension worth $22.4 million and became the country's highest-paid Black college basketball coach. In February 2024, Dawn won her 600th game. The team had a perfect season in 2024 and won their third national title. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Dawn served as Team USA's head coach, and the team won all six games and earned Staley her first Olympic gold medal as a coach.
Personal Life
Dawn is a Christian, and she regularly thanks God after games. After a win on Easter Sunday in 2024, she told ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, "God is really funny. He's really funny. The devastating loss that we had last year, he put us back here with a totally different team. If you don't believe in God, something is wrong with you. Seriously! I'm a believer. I'm a believer because he makes things come true. When you're at your worst, he's at his best. Look at him!" In 1996, Dawn established the Dawn Staley Foundation to "offer at-risk children in Philadelphia the tools they need to become productive, responsible adults." In 2008, she launched InnerSole, which aims to "provide new sneakers to homeless children and children in need." In early 2022, Staley began hosting the Just Women's Sports podcast "Netlife." Dawn's Havanese dog, Champ, has a Twitter account, and Staley often brings him to practices and press conferences.
Awards and Honors
In the '90s, Staley won the Honda Sports Award for basketball (1991 and 1992) and was named WBCA Player of the Year (1991 and 1992), Naismith College Player of the Year (1991 and 1992), USBWA Women's National Player of the Year (1991 and 1992), the Honda-Broderick Cup winner for all sports (1991), and WBCA Player of the Year (1992). She has been inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame (2008) and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2012), and in 2013, she received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian honor. Dawn has been named SEC Coach of the Year (2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024), SEC Co-Coach of the Year (2015), USA Basketball Co-National Coach of the Year (2015 and 2021), Naismith College Coach of the Year (2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024), USBWA National Coach of the Year (2020), USBWA Women's National Coach of the Year (2022, 2023, and 2024), AP National Coach of the Year (2020 and 2024), WBCA National Coach of the Year (2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024), "USA Today" Woman of the Year (2023), "The Athletic" Coach of the Year (2024), and "The Sporting News" National Coach of the Year (2024).
