She’s hundreds of miles away in Columbia. But Dawn Staley has never left Raven Johnson’s side — not for a single moment of this WNBA journey.
The Indiana Fever captured what is already one of the most heartwarming moments of the young WNBA preseason: Raven Johnson walking through the Gainbridge Fieldhouse tunnel in her blue Indiana Fever fit, phone raised, with her former South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley FaceTiming in from the other end — desperate to be part of the tunnel moment she helped build the foundation for.
“She wanna be part of a tunnel pic,” the caption read, as Johnson laughed and held the phone up to include Staley in the frame.
And Staley? She came ready. Fired up. Fully locked in on her former Gamecock’s every move.
“Tunnel fit baby — Let’s Go Fever!”
That’s Dawn Staley. Head coach of the most decorated program in women’s college basketball history — and she is on FaceTime, hollering tunnel fit energy for her former point guard like a proud parent watching their child take their first professional steps. Because that is exactly what this is.
The image says everything that words struggle to capture. Johnson — luminous, laughing, glowing in the tunnel of a WNBA franchise — holding her phone up so that the woman who recruited her, coached her, pushed her, and believed in her through the Caitlin Clark moment and everything that followed, could share in the magic of a moment she helped make possible.
The bond between Staley and her players has always been one of the most discussed and documented relationships in college sports. But this FaceTime call — spontaneous, joyful, completely unfiltered — strips away every press conference narrative and reveals the relationship in its purest form. A coach who genuinely loves her players. A player who genuinely loves her coach. A tunnel. A phone. And a moment that belongs to both of them equally.
Raven Johnson didn’t just leave South Carolina with a championship ring and a No. 10 draft pick. She left with a lifelong relationship with one of the greatest coaches the sport has ever produced — a woman who still shows up, even from afar, hollering tunnel fit energy through a phone screen just to make sure her player knows she’s watching, she’s proud, and she’s not going anywhere.
Dawn Staley and Raven Johnson. Still locked in. 🥹🔒🐓🏀
