Lieberman to become 1st female head coach in D-League

DALLAS — Nancy Lieberman is set to become the first female head coach of a NBA Development League team.

A news conference is scheduled Thursday to introduce Lieberman as the first coach of the team that will begin play during the 2010-11 season in Frisco, a suburb about a half-hour north of downtown Dallas.

A press release sent out Wednesday by the Dallas Mavericks, which will be an affiliate of the Frisco team, touted the pending announcement of "historic additions" to the new D-League franchise. Among the participants listed for the news conference is "Head Coach Nancy Lieberman."

Lieberman didn't return messages left on her cell phone and through e-mail.

Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks president of basketball operations who will be a co-owner of the Frisco team, also didn't return messages.

The Frisco team also will introduce Del Harris as its general manager and Spud Webb as president of basketball operations.

Lieberman was 18 when she played for the U.S. Olympic team in Montreal in 1976 and became the youngest player to earn a medal when the team took silver. A decade later, she became the first woman to play in a men's professional league when she joined the Springfield Fame of the USBL.

In July 2008, at the age of 50, she had two assists in a one-time appearance for the WNBA's Detroit Shock. Before then, she had also been the league's oldest player, when she was played at age 39.

Lieberman played at Old Dominion from 1976-80 and led the school to two AIAW national titles.

She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame three years later.