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On the morning of the tragedy, Nancy Lieberman attended a gathering of wealthy donors at a luxury hotel in the California desert.
She only found out what happened after the ringing of her phone sent her jamming from her seat.
“Mom, you have to sit down,” Lieberman recalls of his son, TJ Cline, telling him.
“Why? What is it?” asked the Hall of Famer and the basketball pioneer, sensing that something was wrong.
“Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crashed,” Cline replied. “He left, as did everyone on board.
The death of a five-time NBA champion, Oscar-winning filmmaker and bestselling author has drained the global basketball community, but few have taken the terrible news harder than Lieberman. Strangers asked her if she needed an ambulance after seeing her burst into tears and hyperventilate so hard she was having trouble breathing.
Lieberman’s cries of anguish were not simply the result of the loss of a friend. She had spoken with Bryant as recently as the day before. He had invited her to spend the night in his mansion the following Wednesday, to fly with him in the helicopter and to practice his daughter Gianna’s team.
Spending a day coaching the Mambas alongside Bryant was such an exciting opportunity that Lieberman immediately called his son and told him everything. As a result, when Cline learned on the morning of January 26, 2020 that Bryant’s helicopter had crashed into a hill in Calabasas, he initially feared for his mother’s safety.
“He told me he thought I was on the helicopter,” Lieberman said. “If my phone was on silent and I couldn’t hear my phone ringing, my son wouldn’t have spoken to me for an hour, an hour and a half. He would have had no way of knowing if I was alive.
Nancy and Kobe’s friendship
The friendship between Nancy Lieberman and Kobe Bryant grew out of the pioneer of women’s basketball quest to test her limits and the Lakers superstar’s thirst for knowledge.
In 2008, Lieberman became the oldest player to ever play in a WNBA game when, at age 50, she signed a seven-day contract with the Detroit Shock. A few months later, Bryant approached Lieberman after interviewing Phil Jackson at the Lakers’ training center and asking if she had time for a chat.
“Vanessa, my daughter and I watched you play,” Lieberman recalls telling him Bryant. “I have some questions.”
Bryant asked Lieberman why she was pushing herself to play once again. What was his motivation? Was it painful for his body? Was she nervous? Scared?
“I knew he had a high IQ, but I didn’t really know that part of him yet,” Lieberman said. “He was collecting information and his mind was like a processing center. I was fully aware that his questions weren’t a joke. He wanted to know. “
This conversation sparked a friendship that spanned over a decade. Lieberman and Bryant bonded by their mutual passion for basketball, their wasting sense of humor, and their frustration with 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 hurdle. A security guard refused to grant him access to the locker room ahead of a Kings preseason game against the Lakers in Las Vegas.
“Do you have an ID?” asked the security guard.
“I’m wearing it!” an exasperated Lieberman replied, gesturing to the Kings gear she was wearing.
Lieberman was still arguing with the security guard when Bryant arrived at the Thomas & Mack Center. Bryant greeted Lieberman with a warm hug and kiss, listened to what had happened and then tore up the security guard.
“Sir, this woman is the assistant coach of this team,” Lieberman recalled, saying Bryant. “If a man wore this equipment, you wouldn’t have told him anything. You would have just said, “Yes, sir”. But since she is a woman, you naturally assumed that she did not belong.
“What he said!” Lieberman added, before thanking Bryant profusely as they made their way to their locker room together.
Later that season, Lieberman dressed in an otherwise empty Lakers locker room before a road game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. Jumping at the chance to prank Bryant, she put her skirt, blouse and stiletto heels in her locker, texted the photo to him and wrote, “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Don’t put that on social media!” Bryant joked.
“This skirt is a good color for you,” Lieberman needleed. “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 reunited the following year in New York City after they both entered the US Open draw.
Two nights before Bryant’s doomed helicopter flight, Lieberman overheard two male Fox Sports colleagues discuss a comment the retired Lakers star made to CNN earlier this week. They disagreed with Bryant’s position that some of the best players in the WNBA were qualified enough to “play in the NBA right now.”
Lieberman cleared his throat to signal that she was within earshot. She then reminded her colleagues that she was living proof that women can defend themselves against men.
In 1980, she was part of 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 bounty, so she stayed strong playing against the men.
“I’ve had my butt kicked in so many different ways, but it’s doable if you have a high IQ, you’re not afraid and you can master things that don’t require any talent,” Lieberman said. “Because physically these guys are on another level.”
With his colleagues still not convinced, Lieberman texted a friend to save her. Seconds later, Lieberman’s phone rang with Bryant’s memorable answer.
‘I couldn’t agree with you more’
Bryant’s defense of his position that some women would not be outclassed in the NBA was colorful but passionate, disappointed but provocative.
“They absolutely could,” Bryant sent. “The journalist was acting like he couldn’t. It doesn’t mean that they need it, but the level of respect because they are women. It’s so normal. Guys think they can just overpower them. They are *** bulls and frustrating as hell. NBA players would be served, not to mention Joe Blow, a normal weekend warrior.
Lieberman replied that it was “disrespectful” and “sexist”. Then she asked Bryant, “Remember when I had to play my best against men?”
“Exactly. I remember,” Bryant wrote. “Nobody talks about it anymore, Nancy. I couldn’t agree with you more.
The conversation eventually turned into Bryant’s open invitation to ask Lieberman to have Gianna’s team practice. When Lieberman reiterated that she would love to do it, Bryant replied, “When do you want to come? We practice every night.
“Of course it does,” Lieberman joked. “I’ll text you next week for more details.”
They ended up talking the next day and settling in on Wednesday January 29. Lieberman said she could have come earlier if she hadn’t had her lecture in the desert on January 26 and her televised engagements on January 27 and 28.
“If Kobe had said, ‘Can you come to the game on Sunday? “I would have said yes,” Lieberman said. “There’s no question in my mind that I would have gone and done whatever he wanted me to do.
With the first anniversary of Bryant’s death on Tuesday, Lieberman found herself thinking more and more about her friend’s death and her own close calling. She wishes Bryant was still alive to be Vanessa’s husband, a father to her daughters and a staunch supporter of women crossing barriers.
“I am grateful for my family not to have been on this helicopter,” said Lieberman, “but I am devastated for the loss of life.”
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