Kings set to add Nancy Lieberman as assistant coach: 'Different dimension'

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Friday, July 31, 2015

Nancy Lieberman's plaque in the Basketball Hall of Fame will need an update befitting something more than a footnote.

Lieberman on Thursday said she will accept an offer to join the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach, making her the second female coach in history to join an NBA staff after Becky Hammon was hired by the San Antonio Spurs in April 2014.

"Definitely I'm going to offer her a job," Kings vice president Vlade Divac told the Sacramento Bee, which also reported Lieberman had said she would take the position.

An announcement is expected next week, Divac told the Bee.

"George (Karl) and I talked about bringing her back after she helped us at Summer League (in Las Vegas)," Divac said of the Kings' coach. "She was terrific. She brings a different dimension. I think is a nice opportunity for her."

The 57-year-old Brooklyn native is no stranger to coaching. She led the D-League's Texas Legends in from 2009 to '11 before moving into the front office of theDallas Mavericksaffiliatefor a year as an assistant general manager.

Her coaching position with the expansion team marked the first time a woman had coached a men's team under the NBA's umbrella.

Lieberman will be leaving Fox Sports Oklahoma, where she has worked since 2012 covering theOklahoma City Thunderas a pregame and postgame analyst.

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996, Lieberman made her WNBA debut as a player with the Phoenix Mercury at age 39 and later made a brief comeback with the Detroit Shock at 50 after coaching the Shock years earlier.

Information from ESPN's Marc Stein was used in this report.