The Sacramento Kings have appointed basketball Hall-of-Famer Nancy Lieberman as their assistant coach for the 2015-16 season of the NBA, Yahoo reports. The 57-year-old joins Becky Hammon as only the other female assistant coach in the NBA. Hammon was appointed the assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 2014.
The vice-president of the team, Vlade Divac said following her involvement with the team in the Summer League, they decided to rope her in their support staff for the main team and admitted that she would bring a different dimension.
‘George (Karl) and I talked about bringing her back after she helped us at summer league (in Las Vegas). She was terrific. She brings a different dimension. I think is a nice opportunity for her,” Divac said.
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Proud to see people open-minded: Lieberman
Speaking about the appointment, Lieberman said that she was elated to have received an opportunity to be a prt of the Kings and welcomed the decision of people being more open-minded.
"Change is hard for people, and our job is to make it normal. I know I'm a woman coaching in a man's world. It's normal to me. It's maybe not normal to other people. This is who I've been my whole life.
I'm proud to see people are open-minded," Lieberman told USA Today.
“But a lot of these guys have daughters and nieces, and it didn't start with us. We have a woman running for president. Hillary Clinton is running for president. Everybody else puts the labels on. I'm just trying to be a coach,” she added.
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