The D-League today. The NBA tomorrow.Why not?
If there ever will be a female NBA head coach in my lifetime, I'm thinking Nancy Lieberman has got a shot. Lieberman took the first step toward that Thursday when she was named head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' D-League team in Frisco, Texas, that will begin play next year.
"If I am successful, I'm sure that I will be looked at (by the NBA),'' Lieberman, while on her way to her press conference to be introduced, told FanHouse by phone. "If I'm not successful, I won't be.''
Lieberman, the first woman ever to be a head coach in the D-League, is thinking primarily about that stint now. But she doesn't deny an eventual goal is to be the first woman to coach an NBA team.
"I'm aspiring to be the best coach I can be,'' said Lieberman, 51, who has been an ESPN NBA analyst in recent seasons but has stepped down from that position to concentrate on next season's coaching gig.
It was the same way when the Hall of Famer was a player. She made the 1976 U.S. Olympic team at 17, starred at Old Dominion and was a top pro.
When there weren't U.S. women's leagues in which to star, she battled the guys. Lieberman made history by playing against men in the United States Basketball League with the Springfield (Mass.) Fame in 1986. She also played against NBA players in summer leagues, being coached by Pat Riley in a 1980 Los Angeles league and by Frank Layden in a 1986 Salt Lake City league.
"I've always been a pioneer,'' she said.
Now, she's one in the D-League. The league is for players trying to get to the next level, so why not coaches?
For now, Lieberman, who has been a head coach in the WNBA, doesn't think it will be a big deal coaching guys.
"The players want to have instruction, and I'm sure they will (have no problem with her being a woman),'' said Lieberman, who long has lived in the Dallas area and said she was approached about the job a "few months ago'' by Donnie Nelson, the D-team's part-owner and a Mavericks executive. "It's like in the (sports media) business. There are woman sports editors who are able to do the job.''If any player doubts Lieberman, all they need to know is she's a Hall-of-Famer. So how many current D-League coaches are enshrined in Springfield, Mass., which is interestingly where Lieberman broke down barriers 23 years ago?
That would be zero.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@hotmail.com and on Twitter @christomasson.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Not bad looking, for a wizened, ancient, pro basketball head coach, Madonna`s age. Wonder if she can dance like Madonna, too? I wish her well as a broad in broadcasting and in coaching. () :-)
Nancy Lieberman has been one of my heroes since I was a kid. I got a chance to meet her and take a picture with her at the Women's Fnal Four in Tampa and I will NEVER forget that moment.
Go on Nancy and inspire another generation of gilrs to doing great things in athletics !!
why is it that this old azz crow still gets a pass when there is factual evidence that, as a head coach in the wnba, she made players sleep with her for playing time? i dont get it, this chick is BAD for womens' basketball period
Don Ameche is officially the only gay male in Nba history. But the guy who missed a dunk, allowing Ameche to be the first to score in the new millenium, Alonzo Mourning, has been kissed in public by his coach, Pat Riley. And while Michael Jordan didn`t flee after Doug Collins came up behind him and kissed him in public, Terry Mills played out his option after his coach, Collins, kissed him in public, and signed with Riley, who benched him, forced him back to Detroit, which he had left. So coach Brown coming up behind LeBron James and kissing him in public is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. It is not affection. It is not in private. It is sexual harrasment by a boss, not between consenting adults. It is illegal, on video, and they get away with it. Nancy Lieberman allegedly had an affair, I guess with more than one woman, in private, consensual adults, not employees. Whether she also did what the poster mentioned or not I don`t know. I hope not. But abuse of power, and not just by homosexuals and lesbians, is not new, but shouldn`t be tolerated just because it has been going on forever. You can guess from how many male athletes wear female jewelry in public how rampant/epidemic it is. When it is consensual, adults, affectionate, in private, it is, by law, not the public`s business. But where are the prosecutors when it is public and/or not consensual and/or against minors, and/or by abuse of power/money? Even when the prosecutors can show video of the crime they do not do their job, they do not prosecute. True homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, if there are any, folks who do care about their romanntic partners, should be furious when these crimes are committed by straights and gays alike. So should true straights. But the crimes remain flaunted in public. Prosecutors continue to do nothing. Nancy LieberMan obviously has been good at basketball as an athlete and announcer. Doesn`t automatically mean she is a good coach. The fact she is an out lesbian also doesn`t automatically mean she is a bad coach. But these prosecutors who won`t prosecute need to be jailed. Aiding and abetting mentally disordered sex offenders by deliberately refusing to enforce the law, against straight and gays alike, is a crime, being an accomplice, at least after the fact. And if folks like Nancy are being falsely accused, their names need to be cleared, too. We need to be able to reasonably trust our government to obey the law and enforce or change the laws they don`t want to enforce.
Wikipedia says: In 1998, she was hired as General Manager and Head Coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock. She coached for three seasons but left after accusations, by unnamed players, of a sexual affair with rookie point guard Anna DeForge. After leaving the Shock, Lieberman worked as a women's basketball analyst on ESPN, owned by Disney Co.
In the 1980s, she dropped out of college to embark on a professional career in basketball. She played for several basketball teams and leagues, including the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), a men's league called the United States Basketball League (USBL), and also with the Washington Generals, who served as the regular opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters, owned by Disney Co. One of her teammates with the Generals was Tim Cline whom she married in 1988. They subsequently divorced March 15, 2001.
No real man would ever play for her . I hope she fails .
No, Todd.
No REAL man would care whether the coach is male or female, but only whether the coach is a good coach.
A man who wouldn't play for a coach solely because the coach is a woman is not a "real man" but a sad person with pitiful insecurities.
I don't believe most of the athletes will discriminate as long as she is doing the job right. Wins will earn her success, just as with other coaches.
I'm not so sure about that. Not trying to be mean or argumentative, but don't count on it.
I've was in the locker rooms for years through hs and college, and I'm pretty sure players, though supportive with their mouths, would be against it with their hearts.
Men's basketball needs a men's coach. It's more fluid when it comes to communication and understanding - especially when testosterone levels are high. I know she's a good coach, per se - but, I just don't see it.
Giles...that has got to be one of the scariest posts I have ever seen. If Ms. Lieberman IS a lesbian AND divorced, as you claim, do you honestly think the team she has been hired to coach care? I am guessing no....if one's personal life becomes the standad to hire coaches and players, no matter the sport, this country is in deep shite....
David, what is scary about me wishing Nancy well in broadcasting and coaching? What is scary about me about CHAN accusing her of lesbian harrassment? What is scary about me checking Wikipedia to see is I could get the facts about HIS charges? What is scary about me saying Wikipedia said the charges were anonymous, and therefore not factual evidence? Though there may be factual evidence, or may not. What is scary about me saying Nancy`s personal life, if legal, is not public business? What is scary about me saying if she did not violate the law the authorities should clear her name? Yes, I think the Mavericks DO care about the charges against her, and about her solid background in basketball. And I think they are not afraid she`ll hurt their young men, whether they believe the unsubstantiated anonymous charges or not. Try READING the posts, not just projecting a villain into them, you might be less scared. And obviously, yes, this country is in deep, that substance you alluded to, which is a shame, and if people would check the facts, like I did, would be less likely to be in that substance.
Giles...what's really scary is how much time you must have on your hands to ramble on with posts as long as yours. Next time you decide to deliver an epistle, at least make it on a subject that really matters (e.g. world peace, solving the energy crisis, eliminating world hunger, etc.)
Here's her letter to Obama
http://www.more.com/2027/9521-president-obama-should-play-basketball
If the Nba isn`t a subject you think really matters, you don`t need to click on Nba posts, do you? As for the title question, Ms. Lieberman hasn`t even started coaching in the Nbdl yet. She would probably need to be successful before she could get an Nba assist job. And would probably have to be successful at that before she could get an Nba head coaching job. She is already 51. Time is running out for her. So, no, whether she would deserve it or not, I doubt Ms. Lieberman will ever be a head coach in the Nba, even as a publicity stunt, like her cameo comeback to break her own record of oldest Wnba athlete.
She a dyke?
she;s a dyke, isn't she?
I have researched further, and while I have seen confirmation Nancy has been friends with out lesbians, like Martina Navrativlova, who studied her exercise program, and Pam Parsons, who played under her, there is no confirmation of media reports she was their lover (nor refrutation). But as I said, he private life is her business. Chan`s charge she engaged in criminal misconduct is public business, but appears based, as I said, on unsubstiated anonymous rumors, not on the factual evidence Chan claimed, unless Chan knows something Wikipedia doesn`t, which is certainly possible.
i do know something that Wikipedia doesnt ;)