"I'm on a little bit of Ozempic on it": Dawn Staley makes feelings known on South Carolina's iconic gesture

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was honored with a statue by the City of Columbia outside the university's Pastides Alumni Center in April. The statue commemorates Staley's accomplishments in basketball as well as her impact on the community.

On Wednesday, Staley appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a promotional tour stop for her new book, Uncommon Favor. During the interview, Colbert brought up the statue, which prompted Staley to share a humorous story about the statue's design.

"Getting a statue is kind of frightening, because you don't know what the finished product is going to look like, right?" Staley said (Timestamp: 3:05). "About a year ago, they released what they had at the moment to the public and South Carolinians — they love me. They only want to see me in a great light, and it wasn’t quite up to their standard. So it got a lot of backlash.

"It didn’t look like me. They didn’t think it looked like me, they didn’t think it was shaped like me. I pretty much like the statue. I’m on a little bit of Ozempic on it, but it works! Nothing beats skinny."

Dawn Staley also added that she initially wasn’t a fan of being honored with a statue because she wanted her former player and WNBA star A'ja Wilson to be the only statue in the city. Staley was more inclined to have it done after learning only 6% of statues in the world are of women.

Dawn Staley says a statue wasn't her dream — but now it's inspiration

Dawn Staley did not have being immortalized in bronze on her bucket list while growing up. She wanted to achieve basketball glory, but the statue idea was never a goal.

Staley joined ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday to discuss her new memoir, Uncommon Favor, with host Robin Roberts, and she detailed how she feels about her statue in South Carolina.

"It's unimaginable. I didn't want — I had goals of being an Olympian. I had goals of being a national champion. I didn't—I never had a goal of having a statue," Staley said. "But now other little girls can grow up and say, 'I want a statue.' That's a goal of mine — to have a statue."

Dawn Staley has led South Carolina to three national championships. She came within a win of adding a fourth last season, but the Gamecocks were defeated by UConn in the final.