Blink Book Review: "Uncommon Favor: North Philly, My Mother, and the Life Lessons I Learned from All Three" by Dawn Staley

I’m not usually one to pick memoirs by sports icons. Musicians, journalists, writers or politicians, yes. But not often sports heroes. 

I admit, I just don’t know that much about women’s basketball. And I sure don’t have personal experience with a full-on commitment to any type of athletic endeavor.

But "Uncommon Favor" by Dawn Staley quickly hooked me because it’s about far more than basketball. The book is organized around 12 life lessons as a primer on leadership by example, caring about people over process, perseverance, family, acceptance … and yes, there’s even a heartwarming dog story thrown in.

As a Columbia resident, Carolina alum and fan, I knew of Dawn Staley as a hometown hero. But this book gave me a fuller picture of her Philly roots, Olympic glory, pro basketball days, national championships, family ties, and early coaching career.

This was 100 percent an audiobook for me. Listening to Dawn tell her story felt like I was cruising around town with her sitting next to me in the front seat. Her audiobook voice is authentic and her cadence is real. It’s no performance. She honestly and joyfully tells her story even when it involves sexism, isolation, uncertainty, racism and defeat.

The book doesn’t sugarcoat her journey, downplay her challenges or overplay her successes. She writes with a style that’s endearing and encouraging at the same time. Dawn’s lessons about basketball apply just as easily to life in general.

Dawn sets a clear example for her players and her coaching team. She demonstrates honesty and vulnerability can exist side by side with toughness and transformational leadership (both on and off the court).

I particularly enjoyed the lesson where Dawn takes the reader through her thought process around her demands (and I use that word intentionally) of the University for equal pay. Not only did she know she was on the right side of the argument, but she also knew she wasn’t fighting for only herself. She was fighting for women’s sports to take its rightful place in the sports landscape. And spoiler alert  … she got what she asked for.

As much as I loved this book, its inspirational life lessons and its easy narrative,  my real connection came in Lesson 10 when Dawn tells the story of her first dog Ace and how he accidentally captured her heart and transformed her into a dog person.

Turns out, we have the same feelings about dogs making us better people. “We don’t raise dogs; they raise us,” Dawn writes.

I cried at the part where Ace dies, and I cried more in the part when Dawn describes how her new pup, Champ the Havanese, picked her to be his person.

I’m now firmly in Champ’s fan girl camp and hope to run across him (and his person) around town one day! I give this book 10 paws up!

 

In 2022, I set out to get off the screens and back to books for the summer. My accountability was writing short Blink Book Reviews (so short you can read them in a blink). The series is back for the fourth summer. Join my Blink Book Review Facebook group to follow along for the 2025 summer series.