A Few Minutes With Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman
{fshare id=5250}
For over thirty years Nancy Lieberman has been very involved in running basketball camps for kids aged 5-17. These events always sell out and the feedback accrued, lessons attained, and objectives sought are usually met and exceeded.
These camps begin on June 23, click here for more camp information.
Special correspondant Willie Martin recently spent some time talking with Lieberman about these camps as well as her legendary career. Lieberman talks about how much she loves the game of basketball and the life skills it has provided her which she passes on to the kids. To listen to this podcast, click here.
DFWsportsonline:
Perhaps you’re pondering what you want to do for your summertime if you have children with a lot of energy and some free time. Maybe you’re wondering where you want to send them, for a vacation or a camp. Or if you’re a fan of basketball maybe you caught some inspiration from watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and
San Antonio Spurs. Here’s a young lady who joins us to talk about something that is very near and dear to her.
A dossier that is second to none. Olympian, Hall Of Famer, Coach and GM with the WNBA in 1997, author…You see her on ESPN sports and Fox Sports SW as a broadcaster. One time Coach/now Asst. GM to the Texas Legends, more importantly a motivational speaker with a birthday coming up on July 1st I of course speak of Nancy Lieberman. Nancy good morning!
Nancy Lieberman:
Good Morning how are you today?
DFWsportsonline:
I’m doing wonderfully. This is truly an honor on my behalf. Before we start talking about camps lets talk about something I was privy to back in March when you were visiting the Dallas Mavericks before a game (March 10th). Del Harris was with you. You became-as announced in December of 2013-the 2014 Naismith Award winner as contributor to Womens Basketball. Right before you got busy with the Final Four-you were involved with that also-how much of an honor to receive this award one year after (Tennessee Coach) Pat Summit in 2013?
Nancy:
It was breathtaking when they called me back in October 2013 and told me I was going to be the recipient. I mean, it choked me up because the people on that list are an absolute whos-who of people who helped shape womens basketball at the collegiate level from coaches and people. To be included in that of people was very humbling and I was thrilled.
DFWsportsonline:
Not only that but in 1984 you have some history here in Dallas Texas as far as playing for the Dallas Diamonds in which you had a title AND an MVP that year?
Nancy:
1980 was the year I came to Dallas when I was the first draft pick of the Diamonds. And we lost in the championship game. In 1984 we won the championship I was MVP. My first year we were runner up…and I was runner up for MVP. I am just honored. I love Dallas. I’ve been here for 34 years and I’m a member of the community and I’m just a Mom in the community.
DFWsportsonline:
You certainly are and you can seen at most Legends games in Frisco. Now in its fifth year of operation and knowing your charitable side it has got to be a joy to work alongside someone like a Donnie Nelson Jr. who also has a charitable sense.
Nancy:
Donnie Nelson Jr. is one of the most amazing people I have ever been around. He gives so much of his heart and soul, he motivates and inspires me every day. He deeply cares about what he does and…he loves basketball and he loves his community and family. We’re part of his family.
DFWsportsonline:
We’re talking with Nancy Lieberman, a woman with many many titles, she has a couple of books out in addition. I was actually at one of your book signings in October of 2010 in the office of Dr. Marvin Berlin in McKinney. Randy White and Derek Harper were there too, that was an absolute joy.
The reason for our talk-you have some camps coming up-this is something near and dear to you. We’re talking about The Fieldhouse. The dates (three options here) June 23rd-26th, July 28-31st, August 4th-7th. Ages 5-17 from 8:30am-4pm at the Fieldhouse in North Texas.
I know how much this means for you Nancy. What are some of things kids are going to get taught, trained, learned, and perhaps put to use for future use?
Nancy:
Well, and thank you for throwing those dates out there, this is our 34th year of basketball camp and we really pride ourselves on teaching kids the fundamentals of the game, making the game fun! There’s no way I’d be around basketball 35-40 years later if I didn’t love the game. We trying to teach kids character, try to teach them good trigger words, how to be a good teammate win or lose, how to build self-confidence and self-esteem.
This is really important to me because what we are teaching here are life skills. Everything going forward is going to be about living in two income families. Little boys to little girls ages 5 to 17 as you said, they’re going to learn how to compete, and that’s what life is about. Learning how to do things the right way.
I promise I will make your child a better player. You will not be robots. We will not just point them in a direction and say,’do this and do that’. We will teach them how to play the game of basketball the right way. And there is a right way. I use my son TJ as my barometer. TJ has gone to my camps since he was five years old. And by the grace of God he got a scholarship. He’s playing at the university of Richmond. If it can happen for my kid it can happen for your kid.
If they don’t get a scholarship we will at the least give them the wherewithal to know that they can do anything they want as long as they are fearless in their pursuit of their goals. So we do a lot we love on these children like they’re ours and we just love being on the court. I’ve been at this for a long time. The children inspire me to be a better teacher.
DFWsportsonline:
Or put a different way Nancy Lieberman has been a part of giving back to community for as long as the Dallas Mavericks have been in existence. It’s very apparent that the sport of basketball is a 24/7 labor of love for yourself. How lucky do you feel that you knew this was going to be your passion, that this was going to be your goal and that things just fell into place after that?
Nancy:
You know what, I tell this a lot. I was a kid from New York City, 1 parent, no heat, no electricity. There were days when I didn’t know where my future was going to be at 8,9, or 10 years old and basketball saved my life.
Basketball gave me the ability to meet people, to compete, to expand myself as a person and being able to come to Dallas in 1980 in the draft. Its opened up a world to me. I’m telling youI used to dream-when I went to my first basketball camp-I used to dream that I had a tee shirt that said ‘Nancy Lieberman Basketball Camp’.
I cannot believe it’s been 34 years later. All I am doing is taking what I’ve been taught, the experiences that have been afforded to me and sharing it with other kids. They’re going to turn around one day and they’re going to help somebody else. We’re just trying to teach these kids the power you don’t know you have.
So I’m deeply endebted to the parents for sending their kids to camp-we sell out every summer. If you want to enroll your kid you can go to www.nancylieberman.com or call us at 972-473-2121. I mean, we want to help children, we want to be good servants and I don’t know any other way to do it than to share what we have.
DFWsportsonline:
We’re talking with Nancy Lieberman she’s got camps coming up. Once again those dates are June 23rd-26th, July 28th-31st, and August 4th-7th ages 5 to 17 from 8:30-4pm at the Fieldhouse. By the way should kids bring a lunch or a soda or a drink during the course of the afternoon?
Nancy:
Absolutely, it’s a bring a sack lunch and some snacks and some drinks. That would be fantastic. We’re going to have fun. We’re going to play some basketball, give out alot of information, they’re going to learn the game.
You know, kids are really intelligent. You can teach them alot if you teach. If you want your kids to just run iup and down the court and play games don’t send them to us! Take them to the rec center or send them to somebody else. We’re actually going to skill and drill your kids, talk to them and then put them on the court, teach basketball concepts plahing 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 which is what basketball is (you never have ten people on one side of the court).
Then we’re going to teach them how to play 5 on 5 and show them how to have individual improvement which works within a team concept. We teach…we teach…
DFWsportsonline:
I tell you what you certainly learned from some of the best. What was it like playing against the Harlem Globetrotters and do people get a little shocked when you tell people that you were part of that 1976 Summer Olympics team who won Silver in the shadow of what Sugar Ray Leonar did, what Bruce Jenner did, and what Nadia Comaneci did?
Nancy:
You know its funny you just took me back to a great place in my life. When I played on the ’76 Olympic team I was a senior in high school. I was only 17 and I remember my first day in the Olympic Village. I’m on the elevator and I’m this naive kid from New York and on this elevator was this good looking guy and this little girl holding a teddy bear.
Well, the little girl holding the teddy bear was Nadia. The good looking guy was Bruce Jenner and we’ve been friends for all these years and Sugar Ray Leonard was on that team in the boxing venue because I loved boxing. So yeah those were amazing moments. I 1980 I played for Pat Riley of the Los Angeles Lakers in Southern California summer league and Pat had a distinct effect on my life. He tells everyone I had a distinct on his life but that’s not the truth.
I learned so much being in those situations. The Globetrotter Tour-I didn’t know if I was at the end of my career or not in my prime at 27. I thought, ‘If this is it then I want to be an ambassador to the game,’ which is why I went on the tour. It was pretty phenomenal.
DFWsportsonline:
In terms of being an ambassador I want to go back to the Final Four that just happened here in North Texas at ATT Stadum. On the heels of getting the 2014 Naismith Award the weekend of April 6th was this something that you envisioned could happen in North Texas and do you believe-obviously its a rhetorical question-that North Texas can be a rotational spot for NCAA basketball for years to come?
Nancy:
Well to answer your first question the city owes a huge debt of gratitude to Charlotte Jones Anderson, she was amazing as the chair of the board from the North Texas local organizing committee. But Tony Say and Kit Sawyer those two worked their tails off as far as managing everything that we did on a day to day basis. Their group was phenomenal and I was very very blessed to be a part of it to see how hard they worked and how they cared. They worked to make North Texas proud of us because we brought people from all over the world to come see ATT Stadium, the beauty of it, the hospitality of Texas. I mean, from the mayors of all the cities all pulled together.
I was more than proud to be a part of what happened.
DFWsportsonline:
That was a wonderful collective effort and I was happy to be a part of that also. One final question before passing out the camp information one final time. You spoke about power, and you spoke about heat, and there seemed to be an abundance of that last in San Antonio when the A/C/ went out. Have you ever had a scenario where you had to play in conditions that were less than favorable conditions like last night?
Nancy:
Absolutely, I mean everywhere that I played across the world internationaly it’s been tough so you never know when you’re going to go into a country there’s no heat, no electricity, no air conditioning in the gym. We’ve been in places where I have cramped up so badly and I feel bad because people can’t see the pain, but all they see you do is cramping. It’s really really tough. And today LeBron James is getting alot of heat on Twitter and social media that he wasn’t tough enough. It’s really unfair unless you have cramped up and ybody locks up and you cannot move , I’ve been there!
It is such an uncompromising feeling and that guy would be laying on the ground with a broken leg. You cannot physically move when your muscle locks up the way it did. I really felt bad for him (LeBron).
DFWsportsonline:
Let’s hope in the days ahead that facts and truth come to light compared to reactionary knee-jerk comments come to light in what should be a great series. Who do you like in this series Nancy?
Nancy:
I’m blogging on this series. if anybody wants to follow me and this series you can go to www.nancylieberman.sportsblog.com I’ll be covering the series. I have picked San Antonio in this series and pcked San Antonio in seven. I think they’re deeper and more experienced in certain positions and-personally I like the Heat as well-you have the two best teams playing. I like the cause, I like the focus and I like San Antonio. I think they’re the better team.
DFWsportsonline:
I agree with you and you used a perfect word for what I want to segway into the following: if you have a desire to send you kids to a camp to perfect their skills and game. To learn from someone who has pretty much done it all, remaining humble and remaining charitable. We are talking with Nancy Lieberman. Three sets of camp dates. June 23rd-26th, July 28th-31st, and August 4th-7th. 8:30am-4pm or kids aged 5 -17.
Bring a lunch, bring a snack, bring a beverage. All of this that we’ve discussed and all that we have shared this segment you will find at www.nancylieberman.com That’s L-I-E-B-E-R-M-A-N. You’re New York raised, I’m a Hoboken guy. Is there anything else you’d like to add Nancy?
Nancy:
I just appreciate you having me on, I love kids. I love talking about improvement. We live in a great time in America I mean you get to see so many great athletes. I wasn’t around when Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio got to play. I saw Hank Aaron at the tail end of his career. We are living in a generation where we get to see the best of the best. We get to see Dirk, we get to see the Jason Kidds and the Tiger Woods, the Michael Jordans, the LeBrons, the Dwyane Wades and the Timmy Duncans.
If you love sports, and sports galvanizes people and families, it tends to put a smile on my face as I get to talk sports with people, life, obviously other things. You really can’t beat this is really a great time.
DFWsportsonline:
Do you ever see yourself coaching on the pro or minor league level?
Nancy:
My hope, my goal, my prayer is to be coaching in the NBA. I hope that somebody will give me the opportunity to do what I love. I love to teach. By the grace of God if someone gives me an opportunity I will work to the best of my ability. I don’t want to be hired because I am a woman. I want to be hired because I am qualified, I’m a team player, and I will work hard and be loyal to that coach and that team.
Note – A podcast of this interview with Nancy Lieberman will be available soon.
