South Carolina women's basketball head coach Dawn Staley was ecstatic to see her former player Kamilla Cardoso make her WNBA debut with the Chicago Sky on Saturday. However, she might have been too happy that she overlooked an important aspect of the game: the result.
Cardoso, who was sidelined to start the 2024 season due to a shoulder injury she sustained during the preseason, rejoined the Sky roster for their clash with Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. While Cardoso played well and finished with 11 points and six rebounds in 18 minutes of action, her efforts were not enough as they ended up losing 71-70.
Staley was definitely happy to see Cardoso officially begin her WNBA career, as she made sure to congratulate the center for the momentous occasion. But her beautiful message for Cardoso has been the subject of trolling after the Gamecocks coach mistakenly said Cardoso and the Sky won the game.
“Congrats @Kamillascsilva on your first of many @WNBA wins….a productive one at that. The “Sky” is your ceiling!!!” Staley wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Dawn Staley is just being a supportive coach here, and it's definitely awesome to see her cheer for her former players.
But while it is okay to make mistakes, many couldn't help but wonder why Staley didn't delete the post even after hours since she posted it. There's also an edit function on X now, so it could have been an easy fix.
Maybe Staley isn't that active on social and quickly closed her phone after sending the message? Or maybe it was a scheduled, pre-typed message? Regardless of the case, many are using it for some laugh.
Fans react to Dawn Staley's error
The comments section of Dawn Staley's post was filled with remarks pointing out the mistake.
“Dawn they lost,” a commenter wrote. Another social media user said, “there’s still time to delete this…”
“**whispers** they lost unfortunately. Delete this, Dawn. Lol” a third fan said.
However, many were quick to defend Staley, noting that the NCAA champion coach was not talking about the game but rather a personal win for Kamilla Cardoso. That could explain why Staley is not editing her post even though it has been hours since she sent it and there have already been plenty of comments trying to correct her.
“She sure did! Our girl is living the dream she had since the age of 14! Her twitter aunties are too proud!” a supporter shared. Another one shared the same sentiment, saying: “Yall gotta know Dawn knows they ain't win. It's gotta be a personal win or something. She did ball on limited minutes though. Loved to see it.”
“She knows the Sky didnt win. She said what she said!” a fan furthered.
Another X user explained, “I mean, I agree. Kamilla Cardoso won in her own way.”
Perhaps Staley was really talking about Cardoso's personal win of making her WNBA dream come true? Or maybe it's an honest mistake since she did talk about Cardoso's production?
Until Staley responds to the reactions she's getting, we'll probably never know.
Kardoso and the Sky return to action on Tuesday when they play the New York Liberty. It's safe to expect Cardoso to watch the game as well, especially since it's the offseason in college hoops. Maybe we'll get an explanation by then.
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