Destiny Littleton details tough call to leave South Carolina. Another decision looms
Less than 24 hours after winning a national championship, Destiny Littleton felt a sense of panic.
The South Carolina women’s basketball team had just touched down in Columbia from clinching the program’s second title in Minneapolis when Littleton received a text message from head coach Dawn Staley. The time for end-of-the-year meetings was near, the message indicated, and Littleton wasn’t ready to make one of the biggest decisions of her life.
Was it time to leave South Carolina? Should she retire from basketball to focus on her career?
The senior guard from San Diego wants to become a doctor. She has a passion for helping others that stems as far back as childhood curiosity about ambulances and as deep as a life-changing visit to a children’s hospital during her first season at South Carolina. That’s where she recalled seeing young patients smile through some of their toughest days.
Littleton cried as days ticked off the calendar leading up to her April meeting with Staley, the woman Littleton credits with helping her mature as a person off the court — a relationship that she said changed her life.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Littleton told The State. “I love South Carolina. I couldn’t see myself anywhere else, so I was kind of grappling with that. But at the same time I was grappling with — I have an extra year to play. Am I done with basketball? Or am I not done?”
Making a tough decision
Littleton told Staley of the retirement thoughts spinning in her brain, but Staley made a push for her to keep playing. Littleton said Staley’s belief gave her an extra nudge to consider a return to the court.
In the Gamecocks’ national championship season, Littleton found success as a 3-point specialist off the bench. She averaged 34.4% from behind the arc and sealed victories in crucial regular-season wins over UConn and Stanford.
Still, Littleton bounced between a retirement or a return, often confiding in the Gamecocks’ team physician, Dr. Jeff Guy. Guy gave her lists of people to contact about her thoughts and concerns.
Littleton knew her career trajectory — she’ll take the Medical College Admission Test in 2023 and apply in the 2024 medical school cycle — but she still wasn’t sure about her future in basketball, even though it’s the sport she said “saved her life.”
She had transferred between basketball programs already, leaving Texas after two years to join the Gamecocks for the 2019-20 season. She called the transfer portal “a crazy place,” and her waiver for immediate eligibility was denied by the NCAA, so she took the year to recover from a surgery to alleviate chronic ankle issues.
Littleton, who earned her bachelor’s degree in exercise science in 2021, was aware of this year’s May 1 deadline to enter the transfer portal in order to gain immediate eligibility. Guy gave her the insight to enter her name in the transfer portal, an option to explore her options without being forced to make a decision before she was ready.
On April 25, she tweeted a nearly two-minute-long video that paired photos from her South Carolina career with a heartfelt message to the Gamecock women’s basketball fan base, affectionately dubbed “FAMs.”
Littleton closed the video with a deeply thought-out message: “Life is all about making leaps, hitting a crossroads and choosing which way to go. And as I think back on the last 3 years I am going to remember one thing: I’M FOREVER A GAMECOCK! And although this next chapter isn’t written for me to play in front of the FAMs, and maybe even involves me hanging the shoes up, I know that during this time I will be able to figure out the future of Destiny Littleton.”
A forever love of South Carolina
She said her decision to leave USC and enter the portal came down to the certainty around her medical school plans and the uncertainty surrounding her basketball career.
“I’m just skeptical about this whole basketball thing,” Littleton said. “But at the end of the day, God is gonna just show me the right direction. ... Whether this next year involves me playing another year somewhere or not, the med school part of it is gonna be there either way. I’m just kind of letting things play out. I’m not really stressing myself out anymore.”
Leaving Columbia has been anything but easy. A self-identified “California girl,” Littleton recognizes South Carolina is quite different from the Golden State, but she grew an indescribable love for it. Perhaps that devotion lies in memories Littleton enthusiastically shared about how she’d walk around Columbia and be asked to take photos, or the way she always knew she could lean on FAM support, even outside of Colonial Life Arena.
Down the line, Littleton could see herself settling down and building a life in the Palmetto State.
“South Carolina is not just women’s basketball,” she said. “Not everything’s about basketball, and that’s what the FAMs understand. They’re constantly telling us, ‘We’re here for you, if you ever need us.’ Just allowing myself to grow in that aspect, I mean, South Carolina is great.”
For now, Littleton is back in California, spending time with her niece and organizing her home — things she wasn’t able to do while chasing a national championship. She’s getting back to working out and plans to take some school visits throughout May.
While her decision to leave South Carolina women’s basketball was difficult, Littleton said she’s been through tougher times. She detailed her childhood struggles in an article written by The Ringer’s Mirin Fader in March and has dealt with adversity from a young age.
“Choosing which direction to go can be life changing,” Littleton said. “Just being able to come out on the other side from my childhood has allowed me to look at these obstacles in my way currently as nothing. It’s just something so small to everything that I’ve been through.”
Littleton found strength from her past to battle any panic she felt before arriving at her decision. As Guy would tell Littleton, her current situation is a fork in the road. She hasn’t let a hard time deter her yet.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Destiny Littleton details tough call to leave South Carolina. Another decision looms."
