After winning her second National Championship in 6 years, Dawn Staley sat down with the media and took some time to address a controversy that started to brew over the weekend. Meredith Cash at Insider.com wrote a story about South Carolina not showing up for the National Anthem during the Final Four matchup against Louisville. In the story, Cash used old quotes from Staley about allowing her players to protest in the past. Staley stated back in 2020 that she would allow her players to sit or stand as they individually saw fit, but this season Staley's teams have mostly stayed in the locker room due to their pre-game routine. Most of their opponents have also stayed in the locker room, but Louisville didn't, and Cash wrote about the contrast. Both UConn and South Carolina were present for the National Anthem on Sunday night.
Staley took issue with a lot of the way the issue was framed by the initial article and the national and fanbase reaction. She was asked an unrelated question but used the platform to defend her team. Here's everything she said in the press conference:
“I don’t know who wrote an article about our players not being out on the court for the national anthem...we’re just creatures of habit. I think the national anthem was played at the 12 or 10-minute mark, and that’s not the time we’re out on the court because of our pregame ritual. If the national anthem is at triple zeroes like it was today, we were out there standing for the national anthem...please do your research. Ask the questions before you go out and write the article. I’m called all kinds of names, our players are called all kinds of names. Before you do that, please fact-check. Don’t put us under the gun like that because it’s a distraction for us. I didn’t let it be a distraction, but it was a distraction, people on my accounts and all that type of stuff.
I can take the heat, I can take the heat, but when you write something and it’s during one of the most important times of our season, let it be factual...I think we can come up with a whole lot of different things you can write about our basketball team during this time than to write something like that that was full of untruths. Then other articles come out from that. Then we’re called unpatriotic and some of the nastiness, and it’s because we’re a predominantly black team. So when you do that, understand your power. If it’s facts, I can’t fight that. But it was full of untruths.”
Hopefully, Gamecock nation can get back to focusing on celebrating the historic win.
