Dawn Staley’s prolific basketball existence is heading to the big screen. The South Carolina coach will be the focus of a new documentary that will trace the evolution of women’s basketball through the career of the former Olympian and member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The project is in its early stages, but the production team has filmed Staley at various points during this season, including for South Carolina’s season opener in Paris against Notre Dame; a game against LSU in Baton Rouge in January; a February game against UConn in Columbia, South Carolina; and again in March for the regular season finale against Tennessee in Columbia. There will also be a crew at the Final Four in Cleveland with Staley if South Carolina makes it. The top-seeded Gamecocks will face No. 4 Indiana Friday in the Sweet 16.
The film is co-directed by Kristen Lappas and Sarah Springer. It will be financed and produced by Teton Ridge Entertainment, led by Thomas Tull, minority owner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and MLB’s New York Yankees and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame board of directors. Lappas’ employer, content company Words+Pictures, is also a producer of the film.
“Women’s basketball has not been historically documented for future generations,” Staley said in a statement to Athleticism. “However, following discussions with Thomas Tull and the Words+Pictures team, I became convinced that their storytelling approach and goals ideally aligned with the creation of a landmark historical piece about women’s basketball.”
Staley was one of the featured subjects of “Dream On,” the Lappas-directed documentary that chronicled the groundbreaking United States women’s basketball team that won gold at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the first of nine consecutive Olympic titles for the Americans. After that film premiered in 2022, Lappas said she and Staley discussed the possibility of collaborating again at a party for the film at a New York City rooftop bar.
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“Dawn said that night that if we ever wanted to do anything with South Carolina, I should call her,” Lappas said. “So I finally did it.”
Tull was one of the producers of “42,” a biographical film about Jackie Robinson’s quest to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, and has numerous producing credits, including “The Dark Knight” and ” The Hangover.” Tull initially contacted sports documentarian Jonathan Hock last spring and told him he was interested in financing a documentary on the evolution of women’s basketball. Hock introduced Lappas as a potential filmmaker.
Lappas said Tull asked her to come up with a pitch for the project and she introduced Staley, who has been a central figure in women’s basketball for more than 30 years. The 1996 Olympic team was a catalyst for the formation of the WNBA the following year, which Staley joined in 1999. She became Temple’s head coach in 2000 while continuing to play for USA Basketball in the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004 and in the WNBA until 2006. In 2008, she took over at South Carolina, where she led the Gamecocks to two national championships. At 34-0, they are the favorites to win the title again this year.
“No one’s career and personal life has followed the trajectory of the evolution of women’s basketball in the same way that Dawn’s has,” said Lappas, who also led “Giannis: The Wonderful Journey” streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime Video. “You can basically tell the story of women’s basketball through a focused lens through the career and life of Dawn Staley and her impact on the game. Ultimately, (Tull), (Hock), myself, Dawn and his team all spoke. … Three weeks after this conversation, we went to Paris to start photographing her.
Lappas said they would tour with Staley through December, including a trip to Staley’s hometown of Philadelphia. The team expects to interview 30 people, including Hall of Famers such as Nancy Lieberman and Lisa Leslie, as well as current players like Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury and USC freshman JuJu Watkins . The goal is for the film to be released in spring 2025.
(Photo: John Byrum/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)