Dawn Staley receives backlash for calling out WNBA reporter over Kate Martin news

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley was in a little hot water over her comments regarding news of Kate Martin’s release. The former Iowa guard was waived by the Golden State Valkyries and was the final cut, per Matt Lively of CBS Sports Bay Area.

However, Staley was not a fan of the way Lively phrased his post in reaction to, and adding context to, the Martin release. He even added the move made sense from a logical perspective.

“Kate Martin is the final cut from the Valkyries,” Lively wrote. “They opt to keep Kaitlyn Chen and Laeticia Amihere over Martin. The move makes sense in terms of need but Martin is an incredibly popular player with a fan base that shows up in every city.”

That’s where Staley jumped in. Safe to say, her reaction didn’t really bring forth the same energy she thought it would bring.

“Not cool to actually use other players names specifically Laeticia Amihere for your personal preface,” Staley wrote in response. “I hope if you cover the Valkyries you can unbiasedly do so moving forward.”

Amihere played for Staley at South Carolina. Clearly the head coach thought Lively was being critical of Amihere being kept on the Golden State roster over Martin. As Lively pointed out, Martin’s been a popular player in women’s basketball since her days at Iowa and of course, playing alongside Caitlin Clark in college.

Martin was originally a second-round draft pick out of Iowa in the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Las Vegas Aces. She played one season for the team before being picked up by Golden State. Now, she’ll look for her third team. Meanwhile Staley’s former forward Amihere is in her second season with Golden State and previously played for the Atlanta Dream.

Staley was called out on social media by numerous users, including Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel. He pretty much summed it as the WNBA wanting mainstream coverage, but not wanting any type mainstream criticism, or what could be perceived as criticism.

“WNBA players shouldn’t be treated with kid gloves,” he wrote. “There’s nothing wrong with a reporter specifying that there were three players for two spots.”

Lively’s coworker Nathan Canilao did the same. All he did when calling out Staley was saying Lively merely reported the facts.

“All respect to the Dawn, but personally I think this is uncalled for,” Canilao wrote. “(Matt Lively is one of the best in the biz and he was simply pointing out the roster crunch.”