The morning of the tragedy, Nancy Lieberman attended a meeting of wealthy donors at a luxury resort in the California desert.
She only found out what happened after the sound of her phone ringing made her jump out of her seat.
“Mom, you need to sit down,” Lieberman recalled his son, TJ Cline, telling her.
“Why? What is it?” the Hall of Fame and basketball pioneer asked, feeling that something was wrong.
“Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed,” Cline replied. “He’s gone, and everyone else on board, too.”
The death of a five-time NBA champion, Oscar-winning filmmaker and best-selling author has devastated the global basketball community, but few have received the terrible news more intensely than Lieberman. Strangers asked if she needed an ambulance after seeing her burst into tears and hyperventilating with such force that she struggled to breathe.
Lieberman’s anguished screams were not just the result of the loss of a friend. She had spoken to Bryant recently, the day before. He invited her to spend the night at his mansion the following Wednesday, to fly with him in the helicopter and put his daughter Gianna’s team into practice.
Spending a day training the Mambas alongside Bryant was such an exciting opportunity that Lieberman immediately called his son and told him all about it. As a result, when Cline learned on the morning of January 26, 2020, that Bryant’s helicopter crashed into a hillside in Calabasas, he initially feared for his mother’s safety.
“He told me he thought I was in the helicopter,” said Lieberman. “If my phone is dead and I don’t hear my phone ring, my son wouldn’t have spoken to me for an hour, hour and a half. He would have no way of knowing if I was alive. “
Nancy and Kobe’s friendship
The friendship between Nancy Lieberman and Kobe Bryant arose from the women’s basketball pioneer’s quest to test her limits and the Lakers star’s thirst for knowledge.
In 2008, Lieberman became the oldest player to appear in a WNBA game when, at the age of 50, she signed a seven-day contract with the Detroit Shock. A few months later, Bryant approached Lieberman after she interviewed Phil Jackson at the Lakers’ practice facilities and asked if she had time to talk.
“Vanessa, my daughter and I saw you play,” Lieberman remembers Bryant telling her. “I have some questions.”
Bryant asked Lieberman why she struggled to play again. What was your motivation? Was it exhausting for your body? Was she nervous? Scared?
“I knew he had a high IQ, but I still didn’t know that part of him,” said Lieberman. “He was collecting information and his mind was like a processing center. I was perfectly aware that your questions were not a joke. He wanted to know. “
This conversation generated a friendship that lasted more than a decade. Lieberman and Bryant came together because of their mutual passion for basketball, their withering sense of humor and their frustration at the lack of respect for women’s football.
On October 3, 2015, months after the Sacramento Kings hired her as the NBA’s second assistant coach, Lieberman encountered an unexpected obstacle. A security guard refused to grant her access to the locker room before a Kings preseason game against the Lakers in Las Vegas.
“Do you have an identity?” asked the security guard.
“I’m using!” an exasperated Lieberman replied, pointing at the Kings equipment she was using.
Lieberman was still arguing with security when Bryant arrived at the Thomas & Mack Center. Bryant greeted Lieberman with a warm hug and kiss, heard what happened and then attacked the security guard.
“Sir, this woman is the technical assistant to that team,” Lieberman recalled Bryant saying. “If a man was wearing that equipment, you wouldn’t have said anything to him. You would have just said, ‘Yes, sir.’ But because she is a woman, you naturally assumed that she did not belong. “
“What did he say!” Lieberman added, before thanking Bryant profusely as they walked together towards the locker rooms.
Later that season, Lieberman dressed in an empty Lakers locker room before a street game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. Taking advantage of the opportunity to play a prank on Bryant, she put her skirt, blouse and high heels in his closet, texted him with the photo and wrote, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Don’t post it on social media!” Bryant joked.
“That skirt looks good on you,” Lieberman pinned. “I think it will really make your eyes pop!”
While Bryant retired in 2016 and Lieberman left the Kings and returned to the broadcast booth the following year, their paths still crossed from time to time. They chatted and posed for photos with Bryant’s daughters at the 2017 Women’s Final Four. They met again the following year in New York, after they both participated in the US Open ceremonial draw.
Two nights before Bryant’s doomed helicopter trip, Lieberman overheard two male Fox Sports colleagues discussing a comment the retired Lakers star had made to CNN earlier that week. They disagreed with Bryant’s position that some of the best WNBA players were qualified enough to “play in the NBA now”.
Lieberman cleared his throat to signal that she was within earshot. Then she reminded her colleagues that it was living proof that women can resist men.
In 1980, she prepared for the Lakers’ Summer League team. In 1986, she began a two-year stint with the United States Basketball League’s Springfield Fame. There was no WNBA during Lieberman’s heyday, so she stayed sharp playing against the men.
“I had my ass kicked in many different ways, but it is possible if you have a high IQ, you are not afraid and can master things that do not require any talent,” said Lieberman. “Because physically, these guys are on another level.”
With his colleagues still unconvinced, Lieberman texted a friend asking for backup. A few seconds later, Lieberman’s phone vibrated with Bryant’s memorable answer.
‘I couldn’t agree with you more’
Bryant’s defense of his position that some women would not be defeated in the NBA was colorful, but passionate, disappointed, but challenging.
“They absolutely could,” wrote Bryant. “The reporter was acting like he couldn’t. It does not mean that they do, but the level of respect for being women. It is so normal. The guys think they can just dominate them. It’s bullshit and frustrating as hell. NBA players would be served, let alone a normal Joe Blow over the weekend.
Lieberman replied that it was “disrespectful” and “sexism”. Then she asked Bryant, “Remember when I had to play my best against men?”
“Exactly. I remember that,” Bryant wrote. “Nobody talks about it anymore, Nancy. I couldn’t agree with you anymore.”
The conversation ended up returning to Bryant’s open invitation for Lieberman to put Gianna’s team into practice. When Lieberman reiterated that he would love to do this, Bryant replied, “When do you want to come? We practice every night. “
“Of course,” joked Lieberman. “I will send a message next week for details.”
They ended up talking the next day and settling in on Wednesday, January 29th. Lieberman said she could have come earlier had she not done her conference in the desert on January 26 and TV appointments on January 27 and 28.
“If Kobe had said, ‘Can you go to the game on Sunday?’, I would have said yes,” said Lieberman. “I have no doubt that he would have done everything he wanted me to do.”
With the one-year anniversary of Bryant’s death on Tuesday, Lieberman found himself reflecting more and more about his friend’s death and his own danger. She wishes that Bryant was still alive to be a husband to Vanessa, a father to her daughters and a staunch defender of women breaking barriers.
“I am grateful to my family for not being on that helicopter,” said Lieberman, “but I am devastated by the loss of life.”
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