She played professionally in the American Basketball League (ABL) during its three years of operation before being selected ninth overall by the Sting in the 1999 WNBA draft.

As a member of the Sting and the Houston Comets, she received six consecutive WNBA All-Star selections from 2001 to her final season in 2006.

After becoming South Carolina's head coach in 2008, Staley rebuilt the Gamecocks into one of the top women's basketball programs.

Her parents, Clarence and Estelle Staley, moved to North Philadelphia from Orangeburg County, South Carolina in the 1950s, when they were still teenagers.

Together, Clarence, a part-time carpenter, and Estelle, a homemaker, raised five children—three boys, Lawrence, Anthony and Eric, and two girls, Tracey and Dawn.

[6] Fearful of her disciplinarian mother, who was of faith and would not spare the rod, Staley knew to "abide by her rules, you lived clean.

In 1994–1995, after graduation, Staley played professional basketball in France in Tarbes, Italy, Brazil, and Spain before joining the ABL and then the WNBA.

[10] Staley was named to the team representing the United States at the World University Games held during July 1991 in Sheffield, England.

[11] Staley competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1992 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei.

[13] Staley was selected to represent the United States at the 1995 USA Women's Pan American Games, but only four teams committed to participate, so the event was cancelled.

In the first game, the Americans dominated almost from the beginning, but in the rematch, Russia took the early lead and led much of the way.

With under two minutes remaining, Team USA was down by two points, but rallied and then held on to win the gold medal by a score of 71–65.

[15] In 2002, Staley was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou and Nanjing, China.

[17] Staley had no interest in coaching when she was initially approached by the athletic director of Temple University, Dave O'Brien.

O'Brien, mindful that Staley was a Philadelphia native and star basketball player at Philadelphia's Dobbins Technical High School, talked her into visiting the campus, where she was guided to a conference room with a dozen people who were treating her visit as a job interview.

Staley reached the 100-win plateau in the A-10 semifinals vs Xavier University that season, becoming the fastest coach in women's basketball to achieve that feat.

In 2016–17, the Gamecocks repeated as SEC regular-season and tournament champions for the third year in a row, and advanced to the second Final Four in school history.

After the 2017 win, The Post and Courier listed Staley first in their ranking of the 25 most powerful people in South Carolina sports.

[23] On October 15, 2021, Staley signed a seven-year, $22.4 million contract extension with South Carolina, making her the highest-paid Black college basketball coach in the country.

[24] In 2022 the Gamecocks were #1 in both polls for the entire season, they would go on to defeat 14 ranked teams, including Stanford, UConn, NC State, Oregon, Maryland, Duke, LSU, Tennessee and Georgia.

In the NCAA tournament, the Gamecocks defeated Howard, Miami, North Carolina, Creighton, Louisville, and then UConn again to win a second national championship.

Staley is the first coach to defeat Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Kim Mulkey in the same season.

Staley was again named Naismith Award winner, and coached the National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston.

Newcomers Sue Bird, Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi picked up the slack, but it was a team in transition.

As an additional challenge, some members of the squad were unable to join the team for practices due to WNBA commitments.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Staley served as an assistant coach under Team USA head coach Anne Donovan and helped the Americans win their fourth straight gold medal in women's basketball and sixth in their past seven Olympic appearances.

She served as an assistant coach under Team USA head coach Geno Auriemma for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and helped the Americans win their sixth straight gold medal in women's basketball and eighth in their past nine Olympic appearances.

[28] At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Staley won her first gold medal as Team USA's Head coach, winning all six games and extending her record to 45–0.