Nancy Lieberman

At 65 years old, Nancy Lieberman has this physical status:

Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958), nicknamed "Lady Magic," is a former professional basketball player and coach in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is currently a broadcaster for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA) as well as the head coach of Power, a team in the BIG3 which she led to its 2018 Championship.

Lieberman is regarded as one of the greatest figures in American women's basketball.In 2000, she was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame.

Lieberman is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame the St. Louis Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (inducted in 2014), and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Early life

Lieberman was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jerome and Renee Lieberman. She is Jewish (and described herself as "just a poor, skinny, redheaded Jewish girl from Queens"). Her family lived in Brooklyn when she was born, but soon moved to Far Rockaway, Queens, where she grew up with her older brother Clifford. She lost great-grandparents in the Holocaust, and her paternal grandparents, who survived, had concentration camp numbers on their wrists.

Her mother brought up the children after a separation and divorce. While growing up, she was interested in a variety of sports, playing baseball, softball and football with boys, before settling on basketball as her primary sport. She played basketball primarily on pickup teams with boys, not playing on a girls' team until she was a high school sophomore.

Lieberman's mother Renee was not supportive of her daughter's interest in basketball. Once, when Lieberman was practicing dribbling techniques indoors because it was cold outside, her mother demanded she stop dribbling because of all the noise. When she did not stop, her mother punctured the basketball with a screwdriver. Lieberman found another ball and continued, but her mother punctured that one as well. This continued until five balls were ruined. Lieberman then decided she had better go outside before she ran out of basketballs.

Personal life

in 1988, Lieberman married one of her teammates with the Generals, Tim Cline, taking the surname Lieberman-Cline until the couple's divorce on March 15, 2001.

Their son Timothy Joseph or T. J., played college basketball for the Richmond Spiders, and in November 2017 signed to play for Israeli team Hapoel Holon, which plays in the Ligat HaAl, the top division of Israeli basketball.

In religious matters, despite her Jewish upbringing, Lieberman became a Christian late in her life and was described as having embraced born-again Christianity and a 2015 Jerusalem Post article. Nonetheless, she said in an interview in 2010, "I am 100% Jewish. My father's parents were deeply religious, we had two sets of silverware when we went and ate over there. My mother's side observed the major holidays. It was more relaxed. I went to Hebrew school as well." In 2011, she visited Israel with her mother, saying "It has changed my outlook of Israel. I know as a Jewish woman how important it is for me to be connected to this culture and to this community."

Lieberman was a contestant on the season 4 Gold Medal Challenge of Champions special of American Gladiators. She was eliminated after the third event with the lowest score of the three female competitors.

On August 13, 2008, she was part of the inaugural class to be inducted into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame, honoring athletes, coaches and administrators who made contributions to sports in Southeastern Virginia.

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Playing career

She established herself as one of the best women's basketball players in the country while attending Far Rockaway High School in Queens by winning one of the 12 coveted slots on the USA's National Team. Lieberman was selected to the USA team selected to compete in the World Championships and Pan American Games in 1975, when she was still in her teens.

She played for her high school team during the school year, but the New York Chuckles played in Harlem, the summer.

She told former Knick Walt Frazier that she was her hero and that it was because of him that she wore No. 109. "You may not have guessed this, but you felt you were affecting young boys, not just boys," he said.

Lieberman attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, from 1976 to 1980, and was on the women's basketball team there. She and her team won two consecutive AIAW National Championships (1979, 1980), as well as one WNIT (Women's National Invitation Tournament) Championship in 1978. She was the first two-time champion of the prestigious Wade Trophy, a national player of the year award in college women's basketball, and was named as the Broderick Award winner for basketball as the best women's player in America. Lieberman also received three consecutive Kodak All-America awards (1978, 1979, 1980). In 1980, Lieberman was one of six young adults to receive the Young American Award from the Boy Scouts of America.

Lieberman was given the nickname "Lady Magic" as a nod to NBA legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson's fame. Lieberman set a school record for career assists (961) that has remained unchanged today. She was the team's assistant for four years; in her sophomore year she averaged 8.9 per game. Lieberman has scored 2,430 points in her collegiate career as well as 1,167 rebounds, averaging of 18.1 points per game. In her sophomore year, Lieberman scored a triple double (40 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 assists) against Norfolk State. Lieberman stole the ball 562 times and helped with a basket 961 times during her college career, which is considered to be new records. She holds numerous single-game and single-season records, including the highest free-throw shooting percentage in her freshman and sophomore years.

Lieberman received her degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Old Dominion University on May 6, 1980. In 1985, she was accepted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame.

The Dallas Diamonds selected her first pick in the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) draft in 1980. She helped Dallas reach the 1981 WBL finals, where they lost to the Nebraska Wranglers in five games. After scoring 26.3 points per game, she was dubbed the "rookie of the year." Lieberman's WBL career is chronicled in the book Mad Seasons: The First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981.

She competed for the Los Angeles Lakers Summer Pro League team in 1981.

She suited up for the Dallas Diamonds again in 1984, signing a three-year, $250,000 deal with the team to compete in the Women's American Basketball Association (WABA). She helped Dallas win the 1984 WABA championship while still voted Most Valuable Player, averaging 27 points per game and rated as the league's Most Valuable Player. In the Diamonds' 101-94 victory, Lieberman scored 19 points and was named the game's MVP.

Lieberman, a 1986 graduate of the Springfield Fame of the United States Basketball League (USBL), went on to score 1.7 points in 11 minutes per game. She stayed in the league the following season, while playing for the Long Island Knights. Later, she toured with the Washington Generals, who were the regular victim of the Harlem Globetrotters, where she met her future husband, teammate Tim Cline.

She was inducted as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996 and in 1999 to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Lieberman played for the Phoenix Mercury in 1997, the first year of the WNBA. She was the WNBA's oldest player at 39 years old. Lieberman, a 50-year-old girl, signed a seven-day deal with the Detroit Shock on July 24, 2008, breaking her own previous record as the youngest player in league history. Against the Houston Comets, she only played one game and had two assists and two turnovers. The Comets beat the Shock 79–61.

Lieberman was recruited to the USA Basketball team roster at age 17. She was a member of the 1975 USA Women's Pan American Team, three years younger than the next youngest teammates. In October, the games were held in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1967 and 1971, the Pan Am team had failed to win the gold medal. The team was more fruitful in 1975, compiling a 7–0 record and winning the gold medal for the first time since 1963.

Lieberman continued with the USA team in the first women's Olympic basketball team competition in Montreal in 1976. When the United States captured the silver medal after turning 18, Lieberman became the youngest basketball player in Olympic history to win a medal.

Lieberman was added to the 1979 William Jones Cup team in Taipei, which was named in honor of the United States. On the way to the gold medal, the USA team won all six games. Lieberman earned a spot on the Jones Cup All-Tournament Team.

Lieberman competed for the Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1979. Despite the fact that the team dominated the majority of their games, they lost to Cuba, 91–86, and received the silver medal.

Lieberman earned a spot on the 1980 Olympic team in 1980, but resigned from the squad in favor of US President Jimmy Carter's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She did not make the final roster for the 1990 Goodwill Games and the 1992 Olympics.

Coaching career

Lieberman was hired as the general manager and head coach of the Detroit Shock in 1998. She worked for three seasons as a coach. Lieberman, who left the Shock, worked on ESPN as a women's basketball analyst.

Lieberman became the head coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League (now NBA G League), an affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, making her the first woman to coach a professional men's basketball team. In November 2010, the team was officially in action. She then moved to a front office role with the Legends before joining Fox Sports Oklahoma as an analyst for Thunder Live, the Oklahoma City Thunder studio show.

She was hired by the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach in July 2015, making her the second female assistant coach in NBA history. Before leaving the Kings in 2017, she took two leaves of absence to care for her ailing mother. She joined the New Orleans Pelicans as a broadcaster.

Lieberman was hired as a head coach of Power in the BIG3 league on March 21, 2018, replacing Clyde Drexler. She led her team to the 2018 Championship in her first season as head coach, defeating 3's Company to become the first female coach in the Big Three to win a championship.

Career statistics

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Awards and honors

• 1979-Winner of the Honda Sports Award for basketball
• 1979-The Honda-Broderick Cup winner for all sports.
• 1980-Winner of the Honda Sports Award for basketball
• 1999-Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame