Nancy Lieberman Becomes 1st Woman to Be Named BIG3 Head Coach

Former WNBA player and coach Nancy Lieberman has been hired to be the new head coach of the BIG3's Power, according to TMZ Sports.

"She was a helluva player and she's a helluva coach," said BIG3 co-founder Ice Cube. "Nancy's a winner and I expect her to win in this league."

Lieberman was hired by new BIG3 Commissioner Clyde Drexler, the former coach of the Power.

Lieberman, 59, has a long and storied career in basketball. She was a two-time national champion at Old Dominion, the first two-time winner of the Wade Trophy (given to the top player in women's college basketball) and three time All-American during her college career.

She won an Olympic silver medal in 1976 and played professionally for the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Professional Basketball League and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and Detroit Shock, among other stops in her career.

As a coach, she's served as the head coach of the Shock (1998-00), the G League's Texas Legends (2009-11)—making her the first woman to coach a men's professional team—and was an assistant with the Sacramento Kings (2015-16). 

And Lieberman, who once returned for a season to play for the Shock at the age of 50, understands the appeal of continuing to play to the BIG3's retired NBA stars.

"I see these guys playing and it hits my heart because they still love the game," she told espnW, per Ramona Shelburne. "They still want to compete and have that swag and that ego to want to play for something bigger than themselves."

She added: "We are athletes. We are born and bred to compete. That's what we know and as long as we can still play at a high level, I think it's great Ice Cube has given us this platform."