In the wee hours of Tuesday morning A’ja Wilson and Dawn Staley will make their Olympic debuts as player and coach, respectively, and it’s only natural they will do it together.

Wilson was born four days after the legendary 1996 team won gold in Atlanta, the first of Staley’s Olympic appearances. Wilson was still too young to remember Staley playing in Sydney in 2000 or carrying the flag in Athens, her third and final appearance as a player. Four years later, Staley was retired from playing and preparing for her first season at South Carolina, while a few miles down the road the now 12-year old Wilson became hooked on the games in Beijing.

“My birthday fell on the Olympic opening day, August 8, 2008, 08-08-08, and I had an Olympic-themed birthday party. That was when I first kind of laid eyes on it and was like, wow, this is real,” Wilson said. “That’s my first big memory of the Olympics.”

That means Wilson never saw much of Staley the player, but two of her teammates have. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi played alongside Staley in 2004. This year Bird became the second basketball player - male or female - to be the American flag-bearer. The symmetry of doing it in Staley’s first Olympics as a coach was not lost on Bird.

“One of my favorite memories is when Dawn Staley was the flag-bearer and we got to walk in with her right at the front of the entire delegation and hearing the crowd roar when they announced the delegation,” Bird said. Before the ceremony, Staley gave Bird some last minute advice. “Dawn gave me the best advice possible. She said, ‘Listen, the flag’s not that heavy. You’re going to be fine.’ So I felt pretty confident.”

Perhaps someday Wilson will get the same opportunity, but for now she is simply trying to fit in as an Olympic rookie and make the most of an unusual Olympics. Team USA is not staying in the Olympic Village with other athletes, although they visited before the Opening Ceremony. That has been the only outing for players, since the ongoing pandemic has restricted them almost entirely to their hotel. That has made Wilson an expert on Japanese Netflix (“They’ve got all this different stuff here and in America it’s nothing, she said.”), although she said the heat in Tokyo has made staying inside a good idea.

“I’m pretty sure I sweated through everything (at the Opening Ceremony), but we looked pretty cute in our outfits,” said Wilson, who knows heat after growing up in Columbia and now living in Las Vegas.

“That’s when I had my pinch moment, that I’m not dreaming anymore that I’m actually here,” she said. “Having that moment helped me understand that it’s real. I’m an Olympian and now the real stuff is starting.”

Wilson doesn’t really know what she is missing, even though she has been preparing for it ever since that birthday party. Staley began preparing Wilson for the Olympics while she was still in college, long before anyone was making plans for Tokyo.

“We would talk about it, just casual conversation,” Wilson recalled. “The biggest thing she would say is just stay in the moment. Don’t let it escape you because you’re so worked up or you’re so ready to play. Just enjoy it. I think I’m doing that pretty well, especially during the Opening Ceremony, being around everyone and seeing everyone dressed alike. I’m just staying in the moment and trying to be the best teammate I can be.”

It was an early part of the unique relationship Wilson and Staley have, a combination of relentless pushing each other to get better and complete and utter silliness. Staley coached Wilson harder - and more publicly - than any other player. Not many players with Wilson’s pedigree would have accepted the criticism. She took the slings and arrows, some tongue in cheek (“I’ve missed the turnovers, the blown defense,” Staley joked following an early Team USA practice with Wilson, predicting Wilson’s role on the team would be “Left bench.”), some deadly serious (Staley’s response to Wilson’s Defensive Player of the Year Award: “I wouldn’t have voted for her.”). In return, Wilson forced Staley to loosen up a little, and she is allowed to clown Staley, calling her “Dawnie” and posting videos of Staley struggling to keep up with Wilson’s dance moves.

For four years the result was unprecedented success at South Carolina. Wilson became a #1 draft pick and now one of the young leaders of USA Basketball. Her legacy at South Carolina is still felt, not just because you can’t miss the statue in front of Colonial Life Arena. Former college teammate Allisha Gray is leading the USA 3x3 team. High school girls basketball is now littered with 22s, Wilson’s number. Incoming freshman Sania Feagin listed Wilson as her favorite player, and is currently with the USA Basketball U19 team. Another incoming freshman, Saniya Rivers, the Gatorade National Player of the year, said there was one big reason she picked South Carolina.

“Easy: A’ja, for sure,” she said. “Especially now, walking into the arena and seeing her statue outside, it’s just like wow, she really made it. I’m really hoping that can be me next.”

Rivers is one of those high school #22s. She will wear #44 for the Gamecocks, and has no complaints about giving up her number.

“I can’t even fight it because she deserves to have it retired,” Rivers said.

Wilson has easily embraced being a role model. Her mix of talent and fun-loving personality combined with a willingness to speak out on social matters, plus plenty of social media, has made her recognized far beyond her home state. Her ability to mix hard work with a lot of fun defined her teams and eventually the South Carolina program, making the Gamecocks one of the most visible programs in the sport.

“It’s crazy to even think that I’m part of that foundation that helped build that legacy of that sisterhood,” Wilson said. “Seeing them follow standards and things that we’ve done since I was in college is huge. It’s huge to me because that’s what it’s all about - continuing that legacy, continuing to grow. It’s great, especially when you think about South Carolina. If you would have thought about it ten years ago you never would have been on the map. Just to watch it grow, especially being from there, I take a lot of pride in that for sure. I love it.”

As easily as Wilson embraced her status, Staley has been that reluctant. It was tempting to say Staley’s journey has come full circle, from Olympic athlete to Olympic coach, or that she has reached the apex of her career. But that assumes there isn’t something still bigger ahead.

Famously, Staley never intended to coach and tricked into it by an appeal to her competitive side. Every move since then - going to South Carolina, merging her Philly toughness with southern charm to change her coaching style, becoming the first Black coach of the USA Women’s team - wasn’t driven by self-promotion but by her insatiable desire to win combined with an innate ability to lead.

That’s why she got an interview with the Portland Trail Blazers this summer, and then dismissed it as, “Yeah, I’ve talked to them.” For years Staley was reluctant to speak about anything other than the Gamecocks. I’m just a coach, she’d shrug, even after she was a conference championship coach, then a national championship coach. Now that she is one of a handful of the most important voices in her sport she has started to accept it, much to Wilson’s excitement.

“It’s huge,” Wilson said. “I think it’s very important to black women as well. Coach Staley is shattering that ceiling for all of us. Representation matters. It’s one of those things where if you can see her you can be her. It truly means a lot to me to be a former player of hers, to play underneath her, especially in this light, in this setting, on this huge stage. I already know Gamecock Nation is super proud of her and I am as well.”

If all goes according to plan, in two weeks, once again in the wee hours of a Monday morning, Wilson and Staley will be celebrating a gold medal - Wilson’s first, Staley’s first as a head coach. They’ll be side by side again, living out the Olympic motto: Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together.