The NBA D-League Gets Their First Female Head Coach

Nancy Lieberman was the first woman to play pro basketball with men. She will now be the first female head coach of an NBA D-League, which is a development league team. The Dallas Mavericks' will begin play during the 2010-2011 season in a small suburb called Frisco which is located north of downtown Dallas, Texas. The team is partially owned by Donnie Nelson who is the one who actually came up with the idea to hire Lieberman. According to Mr. Nelson he is optimistic that these men will not have an issue being coached by a woman - at least, not this particular woman. Nelson stated, "She's got the skins, the experience — she knows what she's doing — so I certainly hope that we're well beyond those issues. Besides, if you can't respect authority, no matter what form or color it comes in, I don't want you on my team."

At the age of 17, Lieberman made the U.S. Olympic Team in 1976 for the first women's tournament in Montreal. She was a star player at Old Dominion and in many pro leagues. In 1986 she played for the Springfiled Fame under the United States Basketball League. Lieberman returned to basketball as a player when the WNBA started and later, as a coach and general manager. At the aage of 50, Lieberman once agin took to the court in July of 2008.

After all the years Lieberman has spent breaking boundaries for women in professional sports, she is now taking on her biggest challenge yet, coaching a men's professional basketball team. lieberman stated in her press conference on November 5, 2009 that "in 2010, I don't want to be a woman who is coaching men, I want to be a coach who is coaching.'' Lieberman has broken alot of gender barriers, let's hope she can break this one too.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=9009195

The WNBA Cares

The WNBA Cares is part of NBA Cares. This program consists of the leagues,players and teams that will try to raise and donate $100 million for charity, donate 1 million hours of volunteer services to communities and build over 100 places where children can learn and play over the course of the next five years. According to the WNBA Cares fact sheet, "the WNBA is deeply committed to creating programs that improve the quality of life for all people, with a special emphasis on promoting a healthy lifestyle and positive body image, breast health awareness, youth and family development, and education."

As part of the WNBA Cares program, this past July, the WNBA and the Natural Resources Defense Council teamed up to create public awareness and funding for the protection of our environment. This is the first time  there has been a partnership between a women's professional sports team and the NRDC. Two of the sponsors for the WNBA, Adidas and Spaulding, also jumped on the band wagon for this event. Adidas provided shooting shirts for the team that were 100% organic cotton that also featured the WNBA Green logo. Spaulding sponsored an auction on WNBA.com for the entire week which featured  spaulding basketballs that were made from 40% recycled material and were autographed by the WNBA players.

During the week long event the league encouraged their fans to take part in several community activities that included planting trees, recycling drives, clean up the outdoors day and "go green awareness" nights that were held at team arenas. The evening festivities that were held at team arenas featured auctions that supported environmental protection and promotional events to encourage people to "go green". For more information on the WNBA and WNBA Cares go to http://www.wnba.com/playoffs2009/index.html.