Dawn Staley Reveals Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Share Her Story of Family, Philly, and South Carolina Triumphs

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley has added another impressive accomplishment to her already outstanding career – she’s now a published author.

In an exciting announcement on social media this past Friday, Staley revealed that her book, titled “Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother and Life Lessons I Learned from All Three”, will be released on May 20.

Alongside an image of the cover, Staley posted a video reflecting on how for years, friends, family, and even strangers had urged her to write a book and often asked when it would happen.

“Number one I just got tired of people asking me,” Staley humorously shared when asked about the decision behind writing the book, especially while still managing her demanding coaching career. “Two, I had to do it before I forgot everything and three, I think the season that we had last year made me really thankful for what I described as an uncommon favor or career.”

Staley has frequently referred to the term “uncommon favor”, which speaks to her belief that blessings come in unexpected ways. Each year, her team selects a theme word, and after their historic 38-0 season last year, the theme for the 2024-25 season is “uncommon.”

Reflecting on her third national title and all the achievements from the 2023-24 season, Staley said she felt it was the perfect moment to share her journey and life lessons with the world, putting everything into perspective.

“Writing a book, you have to think about a lot of things,” Staley explained, acknowledging how challenging the process was. “The good stuff is in it. Things that were impactful to my life, starting out growing up in North Philly in the projects. Everything has a correlation to that, everything has a correlation back to my mother, everything has a correlation to the successes and it was just cause of the foundation that I had.”

As she reflected on her journey, Staley emphasized that this book is a deep dive into the powerful moments that shaped her life, drawing a direct line between her early life in North Philly, the influence of her mother, and the tremendous success she’s achieved today. A truly inspiring story awaits when “Uncommon Favor” hits bookshelves this May!