"Can't wait to read it": Fans show love to Dawn Staley after pre-order sales for her new book go live

Dawn Staley has enjoyed a long career as a basketball player and also as a coach. She began her career playing for the Virginia Cavaliers before moving to the WNBA. Staley also won three Olympic medals with Team USA in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

On Friday, the South Carolina coach announced via her social media that she will be releasing a book, documenting her learnings and journey in leading the Gamecocks to three national championships. She teased the book in a video and wrote in the caption:

"My BOOK!🥰My life. My career. My failures. My successes. My title is representative of it all! UNCOMMON FAVOR: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother and Life Lessons I learned from All Three will be available from #BlackPrivilegePublishing in May!"

Fans shared their excitement in the comments as one wrote:

"Lets goooo!! Cant wait to read it, Coach! 💖💖."

"Can’t wait!😇✨," a fan wrote

"Wow! Can’t wait to get my copy and drop it in my book club list to read! Thanks Coach! It’s going to be a best seller…another Uncommon Favor 🙌🏾," one fan commented

Meanwhile, some fans made special requests to Dawn Staley.

"Can I get a signed copy? 👀," another asked

"Congratulations Coach! Looking towards a book tour in the offseason, hopefully! 🤞🏾, one fan wrote

"Coach, come to JPJ so your long time fans can get a signing. Please," a fan requested.

Dawn Staley comments on her book-writing experience

During the media availability on Friday, Dawn Staley was asked about the reason behind releasing the book this year.

"Number one, I just got tired of people asking me," Staley said. "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 and the Gamecocks enjoyed an undefeated run to the national championship last season. This year, they are the favorites to repeat it, although they have some tough competition.

The South Carolina coach was also asked about her experience writing her first book and she said:

"Writing a book, you have to think about a lot of things. 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."

Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks are down to their last three regular-season games and have a 24-3 overall record (12-1 SEC). They will face Vanderbilt on Sunday.