Dawn Staley

You're going to have more A'ja Wilsons, you're going to have more Breanna Stewarts. You're going to have more and more because if you're growing up around watching the WNBA and watching what college women's basketball is today, you're going to be better because of it.

I understand that my success isn't about championships - it's about bringing together people who were once, and in some ways still are, divided. It's bigger than basketball.

I loved sports, but I excelled at basketball. We'd nail an old crate onto a wooden board and that was our basket and backboard. My claim to fame was my bank shot into the crate.

I'm of the opinion of, if you're a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman, and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That's my opinion.

I hope every school or university treats women's sports like South Carolina.

If there were ever a secret to being a great coach, that's it: the connection. I need to have a personal relationship with each player.

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.

I want to help people. I'm a dream merchant by nature.

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

Sometimes people make things difficult and complicated, but if you are consistent, focus on what makes you successful, take notes along the way, and work on the things that you need to improve, good things happen.

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

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

My communication with A'ja was always less about basketball. I tried to be a place where she could let her guard down and just be.

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.

If you can bring out the best in people, the success will follow.