All teams, the Sacramento Kings being no exception, rely on numerous inputs to ensure long-term growth and success. One of the least sexy of these is a solid coaching staff, but even the most veteran sideline general can benefit from assistants who bring both specialized areas of expertise, and those whose eagerness to sponge knowledge draws the best out of their head coach.
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As George Karl prepares to take the helm of his first full season in Sacramento, he’ll be flanked by a varied staff including great basketball minds who’ve contributed to the game in all manner of ways, in all manner of previous roles.
The most significant of these, in terms of history, is Nancy Lieberman. Though San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon may lay claim to the title of first woman to coach an NBA team, such a bragging right is not the only measure by which to evaluate someone as accomplished as Lieberman. The Queens native’s hire is significant not only for the fact that it consolidates the progress Hammon’s hire signified, but because of the breadth of her experience in the basketball world.
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She exploded onto the pages of history by becoming the youngest Olympian basketball player to ever compete in the games, leading the US Women’s National team to a silver medal during the 1976 Montreal games. Following that declarative first foray into the big-time, she took Old Dominion’s Lady Monarchs to back-to-back national championships before becoming a member of the Women’s Professional Basketball League’s Dallas Diamonds.
While she proved her mettle in the women’s game, winning WPBL MVP honors in 1984, she became the only woman to play professionally in a men’s sporting league when she became a member of the USBL’s Springfield Fame and Long Island Knights.
Having become an iconic athlete — not just in the context of her gender, but a full-stop force with which to be reckoned — she came out of retirement to usher in a new era of women’s basketball with the establishment of the WNBA in 1997.
Playing for the Phoenix Mercury at the age of 39, she became the oldest player ever to don a league uniform — a record she locked down by playing for the Detroit Shock on a seven-day contract at 50 (f-i-f-t-y) years of age. She also built her reputation as a leader while coaching the Shock from 1998-00.
Not being one to shirk groundbreaking duties, she continued to set new precedents by coaching the Dallas Mavericks’ D-League affiliate, the Texas Legends, from 2009-11. This made her the first woman to coach a professional men’s basketball league. Her time with the Legends was not simply a ceremonial triumph, however, as she took the squad to the D-League playoffs in her first full season as head coach.
Kings to hire Nancy Lieberman as second female NBA assistant coach: http://t.co/fxWAFQ6jRm pic.twitter.com/QKHCTV81d1
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) July 31, 2015
This resume speaks volumes about Lieberman’s basketball prowess and her determination, but how will this play into the Kings’ ambiguous fortunes as the 2015-16 season looms?
Though her Xs and Os are presumably sound, George Karl already has a bevy of talented game logicians to bolster his own trove of NBA coaching talents. Lieberman sees her role, as evidenced by a conversation she had recently with Slate, as one of interpersonal bridge-building.
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“If you can have a Becky Hammon or a Nancy Lieberman, or somebody that they respect, and they reach out to, then that is going to be really important in the mix,” she told Slate’s Emma Zehner. “I do know that they will come to me and share some things that are on their hearts, that they maybe wouldn’t go to a male coach because maybe they don’t want to show a weakness.”
Coming off a season (and certainly an offseason) where tensions abounded between DeMarcus Cousins, Vlade Divac, George Karl, and Vivek Ranadive (to name a few, more widely-publicized characters), Lieberman may have a point.
Though one may see this statement as simply affirming a sort of gender stereotype for women in the sporting world, it’s important to remember that the role of bridge-builder or confidant is one not limited to women. Gregg Popovich’s reputation for closeness and strong personal bonds with many of his players is becoming more and more a part of his legacy.
Ask Doc Rivers if being emotionally attuned to his players has produced any results for him over the past decade. Consult accounts of Chuck Daly’s deft handling of the 1992 Dream Team to see if sheer gruffness and practicality is the be-all-end-all in coaching.
Lieberman may end up making an ideal conduit between Karl, players, and management. She has commanded respect on every stage she has been on, and if she is actively portraying herself as a healer and listener, perhaps she is exactly the adhesive needed to keep a team with Cousins, Rajon Rondo, and Karl all functioning well, and doing so in a coordinated, mutually beneficial way.
Whether that is putting too much responsibility on an assistant coach is up for debate, but before the season even gets underway, one thing observers should all be able to agree on is that Lieberman’s qualifications not only prove her to be an excellent addition, but prove that women have been kept in the shadows of the sporting world for too long.
With sterling examples like Hammon and Lieberman now taking their thrones (and/or saddles, to allow mixed team metaphors), perhaps we will see a greater variety of identities not only on the court, but on the sidelines.
Next: Sacramento Kings: Grading The Offseason
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