As a professional basketball player, Nancy Lieberman’s jersey number was 10. On Thursday, Aug. 11, she visited Dallas ISD’s Robert T. Hill Middle School to ask students to commit to working at least 10 hours of community service during the next year.
In return, each student received one of about 300 new backpacks from Nancy Lieberman Charities. Perhaps more important, Lieberman committed her ongoing support to the school.
“We’re not a one-and-done program,” she said. “I will come back to this school.”
Lieberman’s professional resumé leaves no doubt that she is one of the most successful American basketball players of all time, from being a standout in high school, to helping her college team earn two consecutive championships, to representing the USA in the Pan American Games and the Olympics.
That doesn’t include her paid time on the court as a player in one of the first women’s professional basketball leagues and later the WNBA. In 1998, she turned to coaching, first in the WNBA, then the NBA. She is currently an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings. To learn about her storied and extensive career in basketball, visit her website.
Giving back is also a big part of Lieberman’s work, as she conducts basketball camps across the country, and working from her home base in the Dallas area, where she’s lived the past 36 years.
“We care very deeply about kids, about seeing kids go to college,” she said. “This is what we should be doing.”
Also part of the Thursday event were Bryan Adams High School student Mackenzie Patterson, who took part in Lieberman’s annual Celebrity Golf Classic and received an iPad; and #DallasISD graduates Lesley Ikwuagwu and Julissa Cardona, who each received $10,000 college scholarships from Leiberman’s organization.
Hill Principal Candice Ruiz said students signed commitment forms to receive backpacks, and community service hours will be documented during the school year.
