What was supposed to be a talent search for Nancy Lieberman's next basketball endeavor, as coach of an expansion franchise in the NBA Development League, turned into a personal training camp last month in Boise.
Nancy Lieberman drives to the basket past former NBA All-Star Dan Majerle during the 2009 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in Phoenix.
The Hall of Famer played predawn pickup games with prospective members of the fall's Frisco, Texas, team near Dallas.
The intent was to get in shape for her appearance in Friday's Celebrity Game in Arlington, Texas, where Lieberman will play on a squad coached by five-time All-Star Alonzo Mourning.
But if practicing with D-League players gives them an idea of her approach to the game as the first female coach of a professional men's team, all the better.
"If I can go in and show them at 51 what I want them to do, it's a bonus," Lieberman said.
"I'm not there to compete with them. But I liked to be shown what to do as a player, and I want to show them what to expect at the next level."
None of this is new for Lieberman, who played with men on the courts of Harlem, N.Y., growing up and in men's pro leagues as an adult. She made history in 1986 as the first female in a pro men's league with the U.S. Basketball League's Springfield (Mass.) Fame, spending several summers with NBA teams coached by Pat Riley and Frank Layden.
The Dallas-area resident began to build a Hall of Fame résumé as an 18-year-old on the silver medal-winning 1976 U.S. Olympic women's team. She had an All-America career at Old Dominion that included back-to-back national titles and two national player of the year awards. And she played in women's leagues preceding the WNBA.
When Lieberman entered the WNBA as a player in the inaugural 1997 season, she was already enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1996). She later was a coach and general manager and briefly returned to play when she was 50.
Since her November hiring for Dallas' D-League affiliate, Mavericks President and general manager Donn Nelson keeps discovering more in her hoops background.
"For what Nancy has done for basketball, I couldn't think of anyone more qualified and deserving of an opportunity," said Nelson, adding he can envision her as an NBA coach. "Every bone in her body is devoted to basketball, and that's what we wanted.
"The eyes of the world will be on her and it is added pressure, but if anyone can overcome the odds, it's her. If you don't believe it, just challenge her."
Lieberman is heavily in the learning phase, seeking input from NBA and D-League coaches and trying to tailor her philosophy for the current generation of players: "The game is different now and they don't play the same defense as I did in college. I consider this a wonderful opportunity to ask a lot of questions."
Friday, Lieberman wants to make sure she's one of Mourning's first options on a squad that includes former NBA players Robert Horry and Rick Fox and Mavs owner Mark Cuban.
"I just want to get my legs under me," she said. "No matter what people think of that game, it's pretty competitive."
SOURCE: USA Today
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