Nancy Lieberman’s next coaching step will involve taking the reigns of a BIG3 team. The Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame member and trailblazer for women’s basketball will coach in the BIG3 in its second season.
Lieberman was an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings and has coached in the WNBA, but the move makes her the first women’s coach in the history of men’s professional basketball.
Lieberman will coach the Power, according to the BIG3, taking over the role that opened up when Clyde Drexler became the league’s commissioner. The league announced the news on Wednesday on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Big3N3ws/status/976475730044387329
Lieberman spoke about her decision to join the league as a coach with Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times.
“There’s a reason I played at 39 in the inaugural season of the W.N.B.A. and came back at 50 in 2008,” Lieberman said. “It’s not because I didn’t have anything to do. It’s because I loved the game.”
The Times also collected some glowing quotes from those in the BIG3 excited about Lieberman’s addition.
“We have added an absolutely tremendous coach in Nancy Lieberman,” Big3’s chairwoman, Amy Trask, said in a news release issued by the league. “Not a tremendous female coach, a tremendous coach, period.”
Ice Cube, one of the league’s founders, added, “Nancy’s a winner, and I expect her to win in this league.”
Lieberman joins a number of former players, including Baron Davis, that are joining the ranks of the BIG3 for its second season. It’s been a very eventful offseason for the league, some of it not so positive, but this is a welcomed development as it enters its sophomore season.
