PIONEERS Nancy Lieberman threw a no-look pass Her Detroit Shock teammate caught it and scored For nine minutes that night Lieberman ran the court She didn’t score but she dished out another assist as the Shock lost to the Houston Comets Typically there’s no reason to notice nine minutes of playing time But this game was special because Lieberman had come out of retirement at age 50 She had been training for months Now she was making history She was the oldest Nancy Lieberman is the youngest player to win an Olympic medal in basketball for the United States 5 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1
woman to play in a Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA game Defying expectations was nothing new for Lieberman In 1976 she won a silver medal as an 18-year-old on the US Olympic team Then she led Old Dominion University to two national championships before she turned pro Lieberman didn’t have any real opportunities to play professionally in the United States until 1997 That year the WNBA began play Lieberman was 39 Still she came out of retirement to play one season Lieberman was the oldest player to debut in the league Her brief return 11 years later lasted just one game But it gave fans another example of why she’s one of the legends of the sport Cheryl Miller was another player whose career peaked before the WNBA existed In one 6
Cheryl Miller dominated the sport during her college years at the University of Southern California USC high school game she scored 105 of her team’s 179 points That was a national record While playing at USC she won two National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA titles 7
