Nancy Lieberman

Nancy Lieberman was the first great womens basketball player produced in the United States. When only 17 years old, as a high school junior, she played on the 1975 Pan American Games gold medal team and later played on the 1976 Olympic team. Highly recruited, she took her talents to [Old Dominion University] where she was all-everything for four years. She led her team to two national championships (1979 and 1980) and also won the Wade Trophy as the outstanding womens intercollegiate player twice. At the 1979 Pan American Games she won silver.

After her college days were over, Nancy Lieberman expected to play in the 1980 Olympics, but the boycott ended those hopes. After competing in several non-Olympic events as a member of the team, she signed the largest contract in the history of the Womens Basketball League. Unfortunately the league, never financially stable, soon folded. Lieberman briefly played with the Washington Generals, the traveling opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters. She later made some news as the trainer and manager of tennis superstar, Martina Navratilova. Lieberman has since worked as an executive in the WNBA and as a television basketball analyst.