Dawn Staley Playfully Threatens New Chicago Sky Coach About Kamilla Cardoso's Development
An important part of the WNBA's current head coaching carousel was solved over the weekend when the Chicago Sky announced their hiring of former Las Vegas Aces assistant Tyler Marsh.
This hiring went over extremely well, both within the Sky's franchise and outside of it, especially after Chicago Sun-Times reporter Annie Costabile wrote that Marsh "has been praised for his player-development skills, specifically his work with three-time MVP A’ja Wilson."
The fact that Marsh played a big part in turning A'ja Wilson (who wasn't happy about losing Marsh to the Sky) into a three-time WNBA MVP, two-time WNBA Champion, two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, and six-time WNBA All-Star bodes well for the Sky's franchise; especially given that their two franchise cornerstones (Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso) are frontcourt players like Wilson.
Wilson and Cardoso have something else in common: they played for coaching legend Dawn Staley at the University of South Carolina. And since Marsh helped Wilson realize her potential, Staley asserted that he better do the same for Cardoso during a recent speaking engagement.
X user @AndreaAmir posted a video of Staley speaking at a Las Vegas Aces Courtside Conversations event over the weekend. When the topic of Marsh's hiring (who was attending the event) on the Sky was brought up, Staley said, "If Kamilla Cardoso doesn't develop, we gon' blame Tyler."
She then continued by saying, "Doubtful, though."
Shout out to the new Head Coach of the @chicagosky at the @LVAces Courtside Conversations pic.twitter.com/dAfhCQV60V
— Aces-Back to Back! (@AndreaAmir) November 3, 2024
While Staley's threat was surely made in jest, all good jokes contain a little bit of truth to them. And Sky fans are hoping that Marsh's tutelage can turn Cardoso into as dominant of a paint presence as Wilson.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.