Former NBA player Stephen Jackson criticized CBS host Gayle King for her interview with South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley after Staley led the Gamecocks to an undefeated national championship season.
In the interview, King had mentioned they were cheering for Iowa and star player Caitlin Clark, which Jackson felt demeaned Staley’s accomplishment.
He said in an explicit video that King is not considered part of black media and only gets passes for being Oprah’s friend.
Jackson said it was disrespectful for King to bring up Clark during an interview about Staley and South Carolina winning undefeated, saying “we” were rooting for Clark, and that King made it about Clark rather than Staley.
“So, Gayle King’s supposed to be somebody that’s big in the journalism space, right? And I don’t consider her Black media. Y’all give her all these passes because she’s Oprah’s friend. I don’t give a [expletive] whose friend she is. You don’t do nothing for nobody,” Jackson said.
“But you cannot demean Dawn Staley like that. You’re talking to her about winning the championship, about going undefeated. And you have the nerve to get on there and say, ‘We was rooting for Caitlin Clark and you broke everybody’s hearts,'” he said.
“Who is we? Who is we? All the Black people I know was rooting for Dawn Staley. We’re all fans of Caitlin Clark, but the way you put it, that [expletive] was trash. I’m glad it’s a new day in the media space. You don’t even say stuff like that to somebody on an interview. You demeaned her and made it about Caitlin Clark. That’s trash, super trash.”
While Clark went first in the WNBA draft, South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso also went third overall to the Chicago Sky.
South Carolina is expected to return most of their roster for another championship run in 2024-25.
