Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Saturday, May 27, 2006

Nancy Lieberman has no shame.

I freely admit I have no respect for the woman. Despite her repeated denials of a relationship with Anna DeForge while NL was the coach of the Detroit Shock, plenty of former Shock players have rolled their eyes and scoffed at Nancy's denials. The franchise was much worse off after Nancy left then before she arrived. Even worse, during the Detroit-Phoenix game last summer, Nancy, as part of her alleged color commentary, started bragging about her coaching prowess in Detroit and how much better attendance was when she was the coach. Classy.

Incidentally, I am sure the condominium Nancy purchased in May 2005 in Downtown Phoenix and her showing up at nearly every Mercury home game in 2004 and 2005 (even though she was not announcing), sometimes sitting with DeForge's family, has no bearing on her denials of any impropriety while head coach of the Shock.

What finally did it for me was the Connecticut-Minnesota game the other night and an ESPN article on the Mercury she wrote. We are all used to Nancy endlessly talking about herself instead of the games. Heck, we have even come to accept it is probably in Nancy's ESPN contract that she be introduced as a "Hall of Famer." But during this game, Nancy made her usual factual errors (Hint...Australia is not part of Europe), then boldly stated Rebecca Lobo could block Kevin Garnett's shot. Besides the obvious height differential of approximately seven inches, not to mention Garnett's superior athleticism, the comment was completely unnecessary. Whether or not Lobo could block Garnett's shot is irrelevant to Lobo's standing in the history books as a great college player. More importantly, it demonstrates the need in Nancy's mind to somehow justify the WNBA by comparing the players to their NBA counterparts. It is demeaning to all involved, and it isn't necessary (or true).

In her preview article regarding the Phoenix Mercury, Nancy stated:

But she doesn't have the athleticism or length of DeForge, and Miller is not as good of a perimeter defender. And that's a big concern, because when Diana Taurasi and Miller are in the backcourt together, they could have a hard time matching up defensively. And even if they switch it up, Taurasi, for all her strengths, cannot guard the likes of DeForge, Sheryl Swoopes or Deanna Nolan.

I must have missed the part when Anna DeForge developed the athleticism and skillset of the three-time MVP or the former WNBA champion. In completely overestimating DeForge's on-court abilities, I am sure the appearance of impropriety was not a concern for Nancy...just like it wasn't a concern when Nancy awarded her the Most Improved Player award on ESPN.com a few years ago.

If Doug Collins or Steve Kerr rambled incessantly about themselves the way Nancy does, they would no longer be employed by TNT. If any journalist wrote what Nancy did, with a reckless disregard for facts, would that journalist be employed? Yet ESPN inexplicably continues to employ Nancy.