Nancy Lieberman made history when she became just the second woman to earn an assistant coaching position on an NBA team.
Lieberman served under George Karl for the Kings during the 2015 NBA season and Dave Joerger for the 2016 season before returning to the broadcast booth with the Pelicans and Thunder, respectively.
“Lady Magic,” an inductee of both the NBA and WNBA Hall of Fame, is no stranger to making history, however.
After an illustrious high school and college basketball career, where she made a name for herself as one of the nation’s top players and secured a spot on the Women’s National Team, Lieberman would go on to find success in several professional women’s and men’s leagues.
She was drafted No. 1 overall by the Dallas Diamonds of the Women’s Professional Basketball League in 1980, earning “Rookie of the Year” honors after averaging 26.3 points per game.
In the summer of 1981, the 5-foot-10 guard got the chance to play for the Los Angeles Lakers in a local Summer Pro Basketball League. The summer before, she was the only woman playing in a similar pro summer league in New York City.
Three years later, Lieberman won MVP of the Women’s American Basketball Association and helped her squad take home the title. She would go on to play in the men’s professional United States Basketball League and logged minutes with Harlem Globetrotters foe the Washington Generals.
In 1997, she joined the Phoenix Mercury and the newly-formed WNBA before moving on to serve as head coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock the next season.