Don Staley is a woman of many titles, five-time WNBA All-Star, Olympic gold medalist, head coach, and now an author.

In her first book, Staley reflects on the lessons that made her who she is today, from growing up in the projects of North Philadelphia to college stardom, to being a WNBA pioneer, and an architect of an NCAA powerhouse at South Carolina.

The memoir is called Uncommon Favor, basketball, North Philly, my mother, and the life lessons I learned from all three.

I spoke recently with Staley and asked her about first discovering her love of the game.

Basketball was everything to me, but when I look back on it being the youngest of five,

you grow up in a household where you don't really have a perspective or an opinion because

you're the youngest and no one's listening. And then when I when I picked up a basketball,

like it really was a love affair. I found my identity. Playing the game, like people saw me.

Like they really saw me for who I was, whether that was a girl playing with all boys or

whether that was a girl that was tough, a girl that didn't back down.

There was a light shined on my life. And it's in a weird way that I felt that, but that light

has never dimmed. And it's all because of the game that I fell in love with.

You're so honest about the challenges you face along the way, too, about it being a tough adjustment from Philly to UVA.

And then again, a tough adjustment when you're playing overseas.

There's a great story about Kid and Play and the House Party movies I won't get into here.

But a lot of folks know you from that big moment in the 1996

Olympic Games, the women's dream team you were on with all those legends of the game of

Cheryl Swoops and Lisa Leslie and Teresa Edwards. There was a lot of pressure on you then because

we knew if that team didn't win gold, there would be no professional women's team on the back end.

You write about that and you say, we feared the promise of stateside professional women's basketball

would die on the vine if you flopped.

After carrying that burden, what was it like to feel that gold medal around your neck?

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