South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley recently joked around with WNBA legend Lisa Leslie while recalling their time as roommates. In an episode of the “Between The Lines” podcast on YouTube on Wednesday, July 23, Leslie interviewed Staley and asked her to share her experience of being roommates with each other on multiple occasions.
This prompted Staley to tease Leslie with a hilarious flashback about how different they were, as they had different routines, lifestyles, and even ages. Despite this, however, Leslie and Staley always ended up as roommates when they represented Team USA women’s basketball in different international competitions.
“Do you know how we became roommates?” Leslie asked.
Staley answered:
“I don’t know, opposites attract?”
The two then wondered how they came to be roommates, given that Staley was already in college while Leslie was said to be a junior in high school hoops. When the latter then asked Staley how she was as a roommate, the Gamecocks coach jokingly said:
“Oh, you were messy (7:34).”
Leslie playfully called her out for her answer before Staley sarcastically responded with kind words for the 53-year-old. As Leslie re-explained to Staley that she was asking her to talk about the exact experience of being roommates with her, the 55-year-old detailed why they were opposite of each other.
“You were like a girly girl. It was just opposite of me. You prepped, you had preparations. You got makeup. I was more just neat, let’s wash, let’s shower, let’s get back to what I need to get back to outside this bathroom, right? But you liked to put your stuff everywhere. You liked to take a shower, and then you liked to get out of the shower on the bath mat while you’re wet,” Staley said (7:58).
Leslie and Staley then had a back-and-forth regarding the showers, with the former pointing out that she was merely trying to keep the bathroom clean for Staley to use right after.
Staley is coming off a 2024-25 season where she and the Gamecocks’ 2024 national title defense was spoiled by the UConn Huskies in the 2025 NCAA championship game by 23 points, 82-59. They finished the recently-concluded campaign with an overall record of 35-4 (15-1, SEC).
Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley won three Olympic gold medals together
While Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley shared the floor as players in multiple international competitions for Team USA, perhaps their most celebrated feat is winning three Olympic gold medals together.
They won these medals for women’s basketball in the 1996 Atlanta Games, the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and the 2004 edition in Athens, Greece. Leslie went on to win the 2008 Beijing one as well, while Staley became the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks.
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