Dawn Staley is getting set to coach for her third NCAA championship this spring with South Carolina, but she believes her greater claim to fame is the episode of Martin she appeared on nearly 30 years ago.
Staley and her U.S. women’s national teammates played themselves as part of a prank played on Martin Lawrence’s titular character by his iconic girlfriend, Gina.
“I’m more famous for that episode than my basketball career,” Staley said Wednesday on The Dan Patrick Show.
Staley revealed that when she recently met with the Presbyterian women’s basketball team, South Carolina’s potential first-round opponent in the NCAA tournament, the team asked her about the cameo. The hype over the massive Fox sitcom spans generations.
“It’s a lot different than what we do every day,” Staley said. “When we were on that show Martin, it was by far the biggest show in the country, so that’s one of the highlights of my career.”
In a previous interview about the opportunity, Staley underscored just how thrilled she was to be on Martin as a fan of the show herself. “I didn’t care if it required me to swim through mud, I was going to be a part of the show,” Staley told Sean Hurd of The Undefeated in 2021.
Gina challenges Martin to a game of basketball in the episode, only to later reveal that she is not competing with him but instead coaching the best women’s team in the world to beat Martin and his buddies.
Staley told The Undefeated that Martin‘s producers encouraged the U.S. national team to actually play like normal in order to truly embarrass Lawrence and the rest of the men in the cast.
Maybe if Staley and the Gamecocks can cap off another undefeated season with a natty, that third trophy will be enough to surpass the hype from guesting on Martin.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.