Nancy Lieberman
From Hoopedia
Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former standout collegiate and professional basketball player. She is currently a women's basketball TV analyst and coach. She is regarded as one of the greatest figures in women's basketball.
Lieberman is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was oart of the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2000, she was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.
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Early Years
In 1974, while attending Far Rockaway High School in Queens, New York, she established herself as one of the top women's basketball players in the country by earning one of only 12 slots on the USA National Team. Lieberman won a gold medal playing at the 1975 FIBA World Championship for Women when she was 17 years old.
Lieberman was still 17 when she was named to the 1976 USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team, which she would compete at the Montreal Games in the first-ever Women's Olympic Basketball Team Competition. Shortly after turning 18, Lieberman became the youngest basketball player in Olympic history to win a medal as the United States captured the Silver Medal.
She won a silver medal at the 1979 Pan American Games.
College
From 1976 to 1980, Lieberman attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and played on the women's basketball team there. During that time, the Monarchs won two consecutive AIAW National Championships (1979, 1980) and one Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) Championship (1978). She was the first two-time winner of the prestigious Wade Trophy, a national "Player of the Year" award in college women's basketball, and was selected as the Broderick Award winner for basketball as the top women's player in America. Lieberman also was named to three consecutive Kodak All-America teams (1978, 1979 and 1980).
Professional
In 1980, Lieberman earned a slot on the 1980 Olympic team, but elected to withdraw from the squad in support of U.S. President Jimmy Carter's call for a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
In 1980, 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 Professional Basketball League (WBL), then in a men's league, the United States Basketball League (USBL), and also with the Washington Generals, who served as the regular opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters. Lieberman's WBL career is featured in the book Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981, by Karra Porter (University of Nebraska Press, 2006).
One of her teammates with the Generals was Tim Cline. The two eventually married, but divorced in 2003 after 13 years of marriage. During this period in her life, she went by the name, "Nancy Lieberman-Cline."
WNBA
In the newly-formed Women's National Basketball Association's (WNBA) inaugural year in 1997, Lieberman played for the Phoenix Mercury, even though she was 38.
In 1998, she was hired as General Manager and Head Coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock, a team she coached for three seasons.
Today she is considered one of the most respected women's basketball analysts on ESPN and a columnist on ESPN.com.
Honors
She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1996. She was a member of the first class of inductees into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
