WOW Just WOW
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 4:39 pm
Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman is leaving the broadcast booth for the floor one more time -- and to set one more record.
The Detroit Shock have signed Lieberman, the team's former coach and a current ESPN basketball analyst, to a seven-day contract, meaning she will become the oldest player to ever suit up for a WNBA game. She turned 50 on July 1.
"It is an amazing opportunity to continue to play the game I love," Lieberman said.
Lieberman set the mark as the oldest player in WNBA history with the Phoenix Mercury, at 39 years, 54 days in 1997, the league's inaugural season.
"At last year's WNBA All-Star Game, our coaching staff watched Nancy run through the skills test. She was very impressive," said team coach and GM Bill Laimbeer. "We talked after that if the opportunity ever arose to sign her to a seven-day contract we might give her a call. There is no question she is in great shape. I approached her two weeks ago, but the timing was not right."
"Can she still compete at this level? I don't know," Laimbeer said. "But I'm going to throw her in the fire."
The signing comes in the wake of the Shock losing forward Cheryl Ford for the season with a torn ACL. They will likely lose more players to suspensions stemming from Tuesday's benches-clearing scuffle with the Los Angeles Sparks.
Lieberman won two college national championships at Old Dominion and was a member of two U.S. Olympic teams, winning gold at Montreal in 1976 and joining the roster of the 1980 team that would have gone to the U.S.-boycotted Moscow Games. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.
The Detroit Shock have signed Lieberman, the team's former coach and a current ESPN basketball analyst, to a seven-day contract, meaning she will become the oldest player to ever suit up for a WNBA game. She turned 50 on July 1.
"It is an amazing opportunity to continue to play the game I love," Lieberman said.
Lieberman set the mark as the oldest player in WNBA history with the Phoenix Mercury, at 39 years, 54 days in 1997, the league's inaugural season.
"At last year's WNBA All-Star Game, our coaching staff watched Nancy run through the skills test. She was very impressive," said team coach and GM Bill Laimbeer. "We talked after that if the opportunity ever arose to sign her to a seven-day contract we might give her a call. There is no question she is in great shape. I approached her two weeks ago, but the timing was not right."
"Can she still compete at this level? I don't know," Laimbeer said. "But I'm going to throw her in the fire."
The signing comes in the wake of the Shock losing forward Cheryl Ford for the season with a torn ACL. They will likely lose more players to suspensions stemming from Tuesday's benches-clearing scuffle with the Los Angeles Sparks.
Lieberman won two college national championships at Old Dominion and was a member of two U.S. Olympic teams, winning gold at Montreal in 1976 and joining the roster of the 1980 team that would have gone to the U.S.-boycotted Moscow Games. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.
