Lieberman-Cline: Will not return

Nancy Lieberman-Cline will not be offered a new contract by the Detroit Shock. Monday team president Tom Wilson stated "Nancy helped establish women's professional basketball in the state of Michigan," said Palace Sports & Entertainment President Tom Wilson. "The Shock has become affordable family entertainment in the greater Detroit area, due in large part to Nancy's efforts."We will now begin the search for a new head coach, and look forward to a successful 2001 WNBA season." In an official statement, Lieberman-Cline said,"I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity that Detroit gave me to be involved with the Shock and the WNBA," said Lieberman-Cline. "I enjoyed my three years in Detroit and I wish the players and franchise well in the future."

Nancy leaves after 3 seasons with a 46-48 record. Not exactly Van Chancellor numbers, but she hasn't exactly had access to Houston Comet-caliber talent, either. This woman, a legend of the the game, has worked doggedly to coach this team and promote the WNBA product in a market that has been less than enthusiastic. It appears that you reading this and I represent the hardcore Shock fans, but we are sadly the minority. Despite this, Nancy went all over the region speaking, talking to kids and young players. She spread the excitement she has for this sport to others. I was touched by her kindness and consideration when I lived in Michigan and felt it again when I saw her this past summer in New York at Madison Square Garden.

I don't have any clue what the Shock's management has in store or who they will find as a replacement, but let's face it: you can fill the position, but Nancy Lieberman-Cline is irreplaceable.

Things are going to be interesting in the Motor City over the next 9 months. I don't want to incite worry or overblown speculation, but this franchise is at a crossroads. The Shock does not draw enough fans to turn a profit and the one marquee name you can tie to the team is being shown the door.

To Nancy I wish luck,love and success in the future. Thank you for being there at the start. The fans know what you've done, and will always remember.

NANCY LIEBERMAN-CLINE, ONE OF THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED and recognized individuals in the history of women's basketball, completed her third season as General Manager/Head Coach of the Detroit Shock. Lieberman-Cline led the 1999 Shock into the WNBA Playoffs with a flare as Detroit won on the final day of the regular season to become the first-ever WNBA expansion the first expansion team to qualify for the WNBA Playoffs. In October of 1999, Lieberman-Cline's coaching efforts were recognized as Lieberman-Cline and her staff was rewarded by the WNBA by being named coach of the WNBA Select Team-which competed against Team USA's Women's Senior National Team-at The Buick Regal Hall of Fame Enshrinement Game in Hartford, Connecticut.

Nancy Lieberman-Cline

In that same month, a newly created national athletic award, honoring the top collegiate point-guard in women's basketball, was named in honor of Lieberman-Cline by the Rotary Club of Detroit. The inaugural award was presented to Sue Bird of the University of Connecticut. In November of 1999, Lieberman-Cline was named to Ladies' Home Journal America's 100 Most important women of the new millennium. In December, 1999, she was named to Sports Illustrated for Women's Top 100 Female Athletes of the 20th century and in January was named to Sports Illustrated magazines Top 50 Greatest Athlete of the 20th century from the state of New York (#26). These Lieberman-Cline accolades followed her March of 1999 naming to the Kodak All-American Silver Anniversary team, made up of the top 10 players in the history of Division I women's basketball.

Joining the coaching ranks for the first time, Lieberman-Cline added a new dimension to her prolific sports career in the summer of 1998 as she guided the Shock to a remarkable 17-13 season in her first campaign as GM/Head Coach of Detroit's WNBA entry. As GM/Head Coach, Lieberman-Cline directs the Shock's entire basketball operation, managing the franchise's front office and coaching staff, overseeing the team's roster development and all player acquisitions while also coaching the team on the floor. Her first-year success on the coaching sidelines garnered her a second-place finish to two-time WNBA champion Houston Comets coach Van Chancellor in the 1998 WNBA Coach of the Year vote.

Lieberman-Cline, 42, boasts a multi-faceted basketball acumen which includes a wealth of athletic accomplishments, an extensive broadcasting career, successful business ventures, and generous community involvement. She came out of retirement in 1997 to participate in the inaugural season of the WNBA, seeing action in 25 games for the Phoenix Mercury. One year prior to her entry into the WNBA, Lieberman-Cline was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In November 1998 she was named to the inaugural class of inductees for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and was inducted June 5, 1999.

Lieberman-Cline's athletic prowess was nationally recognized as early as 1974. As a sophomore at Far Rockaway High School in Queens, N.Y., the young Nancy Lieberman was invited to participate in ABAUSA's national team trials for a chance to play on the United States' first-ever Women's Olympic Basketball Team. At the tender age of 15, 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's National Team. One year later, Lieberman was named to the USA Team designated to play in the World Championships and Pan-American Games.

As a rising high school senior in the summer of 1975, Nancy Lieberman was the top college prospect in the nation and became the center of one of the earliest and most extensive recruiting wars in women's college basketball under the aegis of the NCAA's predecessor, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). She elected to play her college career at Old Dominion University and managed to claim more notoriety before she finished high school.

At age 17, Lieberman was named to the 1976 USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team, which would compete at the Montreal Games in the first-ever Women's Olympic Basketball 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 under the direction of women's basketball coaching legend Billie Moore.

Lieberman's success on the court continued throughout her collegiate career. Coming off of Old Dominion's first AIAW national basketball title in 1979, Lieberman played on the USA's gold medal-winning World Championship Team and silver medal-winning Pan-American Team that summer. By the time she finished her playing days at Old Dominion in 1980, she led the Lady Monarchs to two consecutive AIAW national championships, one NWIT championship in 1978, was named the only two-time winner of the Wade Trophy and was selected as the Broderick Award winner for basketball as the top women's player in America. She earned three consecutive Kodak All-America awards (1978, '79, '80) and posted collegiate statistical totals of 2,430 points, 1,167 rebounds, 983 assists and more than 700 steals in her 134-game career. Lieberman played the final game of her collegiate career in the state of Michigan when her Lady Monarchs team defeated Tennessee in the 1980 AIAW national championship game played at Central Michigan University.

Lieberman earned a slot on the 1980 USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team in the spring preceding the Moscow Games, but elected to withdraw from the squad in support of U.S. President Jimmy Carter's boycott of the 1980 Olympics. She was later chosen as the top draft pick by the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL), the first of four domestic professional leagues for which Lieberman would play.

Under head coach (and current Shock assistant coach) Greg Williams, the Diamonds reached the WBL Championship Series in 1981, but fell to the Nebraska Wranglers in the fifth and deciding game of the series. Shortly thereafter, the three-year old league folded, and Lieberman involved herself in other sport endeavors while awaiting the resurrection of women's professional basketball in America.

In 1981 she became the personal trainer for women's tennis superstar Martina Navratalova, and remained in this position for the next three years. In 1984, the Dallas Diamonds were reinstated under the auspices of the Women's American Basketball Association, and Lieberman rejoined the team and helped them to the 1984 WABA Championship, again under the direction of Greg Williams. The WABA soon suffered the same fate as its predecessor, so Lieberman remained in Dallas and concentrated her efforts on a fledgling television broadcasting career, which included assignments on ESPN, ABC and other outlets, and also directed more attention to various business ventures.

Lieberman-Cline developed Events Marketing, Inc., a sports marketing and promotions firm based out of Omaha, Neb., of which she was the sole owner until 1998 and remains a partial owner since being hired by the Detroit Shock. She remains the sole owner of Nancy Lieberman-Cline Basketball Camps/Clinics and is the event series' primary talent and motivator.

Never far from the court, Lieberman resumed her professional basketball career in 1986 when she became the first woman ever to play in a men's professional league. She played for the United States Basketball League's Springfield Fame for one year and then switched to the USBL's Long Island Knights in 1987. The following season Lieberman found herself on the Washington Generals, a team which included former Continental Basketball Association player Tim Cline, who would marry Lieberman one year later.

In 1988 Lieberman-Cline served as a color commentator for NBC as the USA won its second Gold Medal in women's basketball in the Seoul Olympic Games. Upon the decision to allow professional athletes to compete in future Olympics, Lieberman-Cline was selected to the USA's 1989 National Team which competed in Sao Paolo, Brazil, her first international basketball competition after a nine-year hiatus.

In 1991, Lieberman-Cline completed her first book, an auto-biography entitled Lady Magic: The Nancy Lieberman-Cline Story. She would later co-author her second book Basketball for Women with ESPN/ABC commentator Robin Roberts.

Lieberman-Cline returned to the Olympics for television duties in 1992 at the Barcelona Games when the USA suffered an Olympic setback and brought home the Bronze. She continued her broadcasting career for the increasing television placement of women's college basketball and donated more her time and to various charities including the Special Olympics, Juvenile Diabetes and Girl Scouts. In 1993 she became the first woman to be inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 1993 and 1994, Lieberman-Cline helped her Street Basketball team capture the Hoop-It-Up World Championship televised on NBC Sports. She also boasts experiences in playing with summer leagues affiliated with the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers, and even going one-on-one with NBA superstar Michael Jordan. Lieberman-Cline has also appeared on numerous television shows and specials including "60 Minutes," "David Letterman," "Larry King Live," and "Donahue."

In 1994, she gave birth to the couple's first and only son, Timothy Joseph, Jr., and also began to contribute sports columns to the Dallas Morning News. Lieberman-Cline added USA TODAY to her newspaper column distribution in 1996 following her induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame. Following the NBA Board of Governor's decision in the spring of 1996 to begin the Women's National Basketball Association the following year, Lieberman-Cline decided she would finally be able to bring her playing career full circle with a chance to compete in an NBA-sponsored women's league.

On January 29, 1997, Nancy Lieberman-Cline was drafted by the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury in the second round of the league's Elite Draft (15th pick overall), and made one of the most storied returns to the court in basketball history. At 38, she was the oldest player to wear a WNBA jersey. Her team went on to win the Western Conference title, lead the league in attendance with 13,703 fans per regular-season game, and earn a berth into the first WNBA semifinal, which Phoenix would lose to the visiting New York Liberty by a 59-41 count. That same year she was elected as president-elect of the Women's Sports Foundation (and serves as President of the WSF for the 1999-2000 term).

Nearly five months later, Lieberman-Cline would find herself in southeastern Michigan, ready to take on one of the biggest challenges of her professional life in building a premier WNBA franchise in Detroit. Nancy Lieberman-Cline has surprised many people throughout her storied basketball career, starting with her inaugural performance on the WNBA sidelines in coaching an expansion team to a winning season. In 1999 she led the Shock to a WNBA Playoff berth in just the franchise's second year of existence and as the Shock begins the new millennium, has epitomized Detroit's mission of being the greatest Shock to ever hit world of women's basketball.

Rob Parker's point of view
From the Detroit Free Press last week

...Lieberman-Cline should walk away not because her team isn't in the WNBA playoffs for the second time in the team's three seasons. It's because a woman such as Lieberman-Cline will never fully be appreciated in this venue.

Her style, drive and desire are just too strong for women to deal with. That's why Lieberman-Cline's players are either complaining about her or moving on. In three years, the Shock roster has had a ton of turnover.

Some of those departing players have painted Lieberman-Cline, a Hall of Famer, as an abusive, manipulative taskmaster. Some of her detractors have even given her a nickname behind her back. She's been called Nancy Lieberman-Collins, a reference to former Pistons coach Doug Collins, who was too tough on his players and became a hated man before he was fired.

Lieberman-Cline, 41, believes the complaints about her have a lot to do with her gender.

"It's a societal thing, where if a woman is very aggressive in business, she's the B-word," she said. "And if a guy is very aggressive, he's a go-getter. He really has a lot of goals and wants to make something of himself. With women, they're too pushy. It's not ladylike. It's my job to push them."

The unflattering accusations almost led Lieberman-Cline, a former Old Dominion star, to quit this past off-season and walk away completely from the game she loves.

"I almost didn't come back," she said.

The beginning of the end started when she angered fans by trading Korie Hlede.

And it was, well, a shock, when she was booed by the home crowd in the first game after the trade. It was the first time in Lieberman-Cline's career. It really hurt.

She deserves better. Run, Nancy, run.

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