1. Nancy Lieberman is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, the St Louis Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
49 Facts About Nancy Lieberman
1. 2.
Nancy Lieberman was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jerome and Renee Nancy Lieberman.
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Nancy Lieberman's family lived in Brooklyn when she was born, but soon moved to Far Rockaway, Queens, where she grew up with her older brother Clifford.
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Nancy Lieberman lost great-grandparents in the Holocaust, and her paternal grandparents, who survived, had concentration camp numbers on their wrists.
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Nancy Lieberman's mother brought up the children after a separation and divorce.
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Nancy Lieberman played basketball primarily on pickup teams with boys, not playing on a girls' team until she was a high school sophomore.
7.
Once, when Nancy Lieberman was practicing dribbling techniques indoors because it was cold outside, her mother demanded she stop dribbling because of all the noise.
8.
Nancy Lieberman found another ball and continued, but her mother punctured that one as well.
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Nancy Lieberman then decided she had better go outside before she ran out of basketballs.
10.
In 1975, while still in her teens, Nancy Lieberman was named to the USA Team designated to play in the World Championships and Pan American Games, where the team won a gold medal.
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Nancy Lieberman originally was a verbal commitment to Canisius University before being heavily recruited by Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she attended from 1976 to 1980 and played on the women's basketball team there.
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Nancy Lieberman 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.
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Nancy Lieberman won three consecutive Kodak All-America awards.
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Nancy Lieberman was one of six young adults to win the Young American Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 1980.
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Nancy Lieberman earned the nickname "Lady Magic," a nod to Earvin "Magic" Johnson of NBA fame.
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Nancy Lieberman set a school record for career assists that still stands today.
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Nancy Lieberman amassed 2,430 points along with 1,167 rebounds in her collegiate career, producing an average of 18.1 points per game.
18.
Nancy Lieberman achieved a triple double against Norfolk State in her sophomore year.
19.
Nancy Lieberman stole the ball 562 times and assisted a basket 961 times in her college career, believed to be modern records.
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Nancy Lieberman is the holder of several single-game and single-season records, including best free-throw shooting percentage in her freshman and sophomore years.
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Nancy Lieberman earned her degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Old Dominion University on May 6,1980.
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Nancy Lieberman was inducted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame in 1985.
23.
Nancy Lieberman helped Dallas to the 1981 WBL finals, where they lost to the Nebraska Wranglers in five games.
24.
Nancy Lieberman was named the "rookie of the year", after averaging 26.3 points per game.
25.
In 1986, Nancy Lieberman signed with the Springfield Fame of the men's professional United States Basketball League where she went on to average 1.7 points in 11 minutes per game.
26.
Nancy Lieberman remained in the league the following season, playing for the Long Island Knights.
27.
Nancy Lieberman was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1996 and to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
28.
On July 24,2008, at 50 years old, Nancy Lieberman signed a seven-day contract with the eventual WNBA Champion Detroit Shock, breaking her own previous record as the oldest player in league history and returning to the franchise she coached a decade prior.
29.
That same day, the Shock played a game against the Houston Comets where Nancy Lieberman saw playing time.
30.
At age 17, Nancy Lieberman was named to the USA Basketball team roster.
31.
Nancy Lieberman played for the team in the 1975 USA Women's Pan American Team, three years younger than the next youngest teammates.
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Nancy Lieberman continued with the USA team to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal in the first women's Olympic basketball team competition.
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Shortly after turning 18, Nancy Lieberman became the youngest basketball player in Olympic history to win a medal, when the United States captured the silver medal.
34.
Nancy Lieberman was named to the team representing the US at the 1979 William Jones Cup competition in Taipei.
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Nancy Lieberman earned a spot on the Jones Cup All-Tournament Team.
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Nancy Lieberman played with the team at the 1979 Pan American games in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
37.
In 1980, Nancy Lieberman earned a slot on the 1980 Olympic team, but withdrew from the squad in support of US President Jimmy Carter's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
38.
Nancy Lieberman failed to make the final roster for the 1990 Goodwill Games and the 1992 Olympics.
39.
In 1998, Nancy Lieberman was hired as general manager and head coach of the Detroit Shock.
40.
Nancy Lieberman coached for three seasons, leading the team to a winning record in their inaugural season.
41.
In November 2009, Nancy Lieberman became the coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League, an affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, thus becoming the first woman to coach a professional men's basketball team.
42.
Nancy Lieberman later moved to a front office position with the Legends before joining Fox Sports Oklahoma as an analyst for the Oklahoma City Thunder studio show, Thunder Live.
43.
Nancy Lieberman took two leaves of absence to care for her ailing mother before leaving the Kings in 2017.
44.
On March 21,2018, it was announced that Nancy Lieberman was hired as a head coach of Power in the BIG3 league, replacing Clyde Drexler.
45.
Nancy Lieberman lived with tennis star Martina Navratilova for several years beginning in 1981 and she served as her physical trainer, contributing to Navratilova's return to the number one ranking in 1982.
46.
In 1988, Nancy Lieberman married one of her teammates with the Generals, Tim Cline, taking the surname Nancy Lieberman-Cline until the couple's divorce on March 15,2001.
47.
In regard to religious matters, despite her Jewish upbringing, Nancy Lieberman became a Christian late in her life and was described as having embraced born-again Christianity in a 2015 Jerusalem Post article.
48.
Nancy Lieberman was a contestant on the season 4 Gold Medal Challenge of Champions special of American Gladiators.
49.
Nancy Lieberman was eliminated after the third event with the lowest score of the three female competitors.