Our own Vince Miracle managed to get a sit-down interview with new Sacramento Kings assistant coach Nancy Lieberman this week, and honestly it ended up being a great talk with the fascinating Lieberman. You can find the full SacKingsNation podcast here, but I’ll be breaking it down and quoting some highlights here as well.
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The first topic that Vince and Lieberman spoke on was what it was like being a female coach (Lieberman is only the second woman coach in NBA history, with Becky Hammon being the first). Lieberman talked about how players don’t see her as a woman, but as someone who’s been through what they have–one example given was that both she and DeMarcus Cousins played for Team USA, and that they bonded over that.
She also spoke about how since she had put in so much time as an ESPN studio analyst she actually knows pretty much everybody who’s been around the NBA–many of these Kings players are already quite familiar with Lieberman and know about her impressive résumé.
It certainly doesn’t sound like there will be any questions of respect or problems due to Lieberman being female in the Sacramento locker room, despite the idiotic concerns brought on when Lieberman was hired by what I hope was merely a vocal minority.
Lieberman also joined the group of important Kings people to officially talk about the Cousins-George Karl fiasco. Sort of. Instead of directly speaking on the supposed feud between the two, Lieberman spoke in general terms about how disagreements between athletes and coaches happen all the time, and how the media is almost completely ignored by the people actually involved in the situation.
She also brought up a fairly simple point that does make sense–everyone involved on this Sacramento squad, Karl included, wants their contract renewed. The only way to do that is through winning and making everyone else better. So everyone’s fate here is essentially tied together, meaning the team should band together (and hopefully manage to win a lot of games together) as the season goes on.
When asked about coaching roles, Lieberman said Karl’s style is to not assign certain roles and limitations, but to instead let all of his coaches coach. There is an interesting mix of new minds and a few coaches that worked with Karl in Denver, and it sounds like they’re all going to get to work in the roles that make them comfortable, which seems like a winning strategy.
Some of the choicest parts of the overall-fantastic podcast were little facts about Boogie. Lieberman said he’s been in the gym every single day, despite having no contractual or other obligations to do so. She also claimed that Cousins really isn’t interested in money–he’s already made so many millions, at this point more money isn’t what he wants. He wants victories, and is working his ass off to earn them this season.
One of the final notes from Lieberman was about how the Kings are looking to build a winning culture, and that she absolutely believes the Kings will be both good and a playoff team this season. That may be a gutsy call, but there is definitely some potential to be great in Sacramento right now.
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