The Dawn Staley Award was established in 2013 to "recognize the nation’s best guard in Women’s Division I college basketball".

[1] It was established by the Phoenix club of Philadelphia, an organization established to recognize the achievements of outstanding male and female basketball players.

The award was named after Dawn Staley, a Philadelphia native recognized as one of the nation's best guards in women's college basketball history.

The organization establish a watchlist of potential winners during the year and at the end of the season selects the player who "exemplifies the skills that Dawn possessed throughout her career; ball handling, scoring, her ability to distribute the basketball and her will to win".

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