Nancy Lieberman hired as coach of Mavs' DL Team

[iella]

NYTimes: Lieberman Breaks Another Basketball Gender Barrier

Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman was introduced Thursday as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' affiliate in the NBA Development League, which will tip off next November.

The D-League team is partially owned by Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks' president of basketball operations. Hiring Lieberman was his idea, and he's confident young men won't have a problem taking orders from a woman -- at least, not this woman.

''She's got the skins, the experience -- she knows what she's doing -- so I certainly hope that we're well beyond those issues,'' Nelson said. ''Besides, if you can't respect authority, no matter what form or color it comes in, I don't want you on my team.''

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The Mavericks will loan several players from their roster to the Frisco club and obviously will have input on other signees. Lieberman said she would like to watch Mavs coach Rick Carlisle so she can run the same drills and use similar technical terms to make the transition between the teams easier on all the players.

[rmacomic]

So... they will have good fundamentals, but won't be able to dunk?

[MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs]

Del Harris is apparently going to be general manager. He needs to be back helping the actual Mavs, not the D-League team.