Nancy Lieberman is a Hall of Fame basketball legend, pioneer, coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth. A two-time national champion at Old Dominion University and one of the most respected voices in basketball, she has dedicated her life to creating opportunity, hope, and safe spaces for children through sports, education, and mentorship.
Nancy Lieberman discusses her highly-acclaimed professional basketball career, the influence Muhammad Ali had on her life, the impact of Title XI, her extensive charitable endeavors, and shares advice on staying healthy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like
to welcome you back to Civic Cipher, where our mission
is to foster allyship, empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to demand q Ward, who
is on a travel day today. We have a special
guest hanging out with us today who is giving us
a masterclass in advanced allyship. A woman who is leading
(00:24):
a life that I believe is one that has well lived,
one that is full of all of the things that
I think all of us should strive for. A life
of service, a life that is filled with accomplishments, and
a life that anyone could be proud of. All right,
we are back with Nancy Lieberman, the basketball Hall of Fame, legend,
(00:47):
pioneer coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth. Nancy,
before we took a break, you were sharing about your
work with the Big Three, and I think your work
even beyond the Big Three and prior to you know,
incorporating it into the Big Three in terms of getting
(01:08):
messaging out about prostate cancer testing, particularly in the black community,
because you shared a statistic that said that it is
exceptionally more prevalent in black communities, and you know, I
want to just share a quick story that obviously it's
(01:32):
it's tough to go into too granular detail, but I
prostate cancer has been something that has impacted my life personally,
and it is indeed kind of being on top of
it and knowing you know, what resources you have that
(01:52):
kind of helps you navigate those waters. And so not
just you know, you being an advocate for a lot
of the thing because your voice goes into rooms, you know,
your presence affects, you know, patterns that you know a
black person advocating for themselves cannot but not just that work,
(02:12):
but the work in terms of like health and well
being of people that may not get this information or
may feel that there's a stigma that is to be applauded.
It is absolutely commendable, and I just wanted to take
a moment and really address what it is you said
before we took a break, and give it what it deserved.
You know, you mentioned like, hey, I might have gone
(02:33):
on long. Nope, you went on exactly as long as
you needed to. We're grateful that we even get a
chance to highlight this work you're doing and share these stories,
so I know that you do more than just this
one thing. So I want to give you another opportunity
to share this good work that you're doing. So Nancy
Lieberman Charities, this is my understanding. It reaches five million
(02:57):
young people a year. So talk to us about the charities,
talk to us about Dream Court program and your HBCU
partnerships and all those things. Just again, so people a
know what you're up to, would be maybe how they
can support you.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thank you, Thank you for saying that you know I work.
The best part for me is what I can do
and pull in fifty years of relationships to a young
generation or an older generation. And so Nancy Leeberman Charities
was started because I know your listeners don't know this,
(03:34):
but you know I told you I was a poor
kid in New York. So I in nineteen seventy four,
I did not have any money to go to the
US Olympic tryouts that I had an open tryout. It
was like America's had talent and there was a pre
camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And I come home and
I'm like, Mama, I can believe this. I just made
(03:55):
this USA tryout And twenty people they're getting or ten
gals are being sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico to the
USA pre camp. And she goes, Nancy, I don't have
money to put food on the table. How am I
going to get you to Albuquerque, New Mexico? I said,
I don't know, but you got to figure out. I've
got to go to this thing. It's going to change
(04:16):
my life. And my high school principal, Barbara Sachowitz somehow
she took a can of corn, opened it and cleaned it,
put an envelope around it. When Deverri and to raised
three hundred dollars to send Nancy to the Olympic trials,
it went door to door. I don't even know who
put money in it. It could be dimes, it could
be dollars. I don't know, but it was enough money
(04:36):
to send me and my high school coach to Albuquerque.
So I ended up making that tryout. There were forty girls,
ten from each community, and they brought us together. Then
they picked ten to go to the pre camp with
all the legends of the game future Hall of Famers.
So long story short, Strangers changed my life, right, So
(05:00):
I'm not doing this with you. If people didn't put
money in a cup to send me, and then I
had to do the work. So then, of course, like
we talked about, I made the pan Ams and seventy
five made the Olympics. So I decided, likek, God, if
you would just help me one day, if you could
just change my life, I'll be a great person. I'll
help people. So when I came to Dallas in nineteen eighty,
(05:21):
oh my god, you're not going to believe this. This
is so me. Please just love me. I take a
black bag. So they pay me one hundred thousand dollars
in the first women's professional League, the Dallas Diamonds in
nineteen eighty. So I started doing some appearances here. They
gave me three hundred, two hundred, five hundred. It didn't matter.
It was a lot, but it wasn't like a lot,
(05:43):
so I would put the cash in a black gym back.
Then I go to South Dallas. I go to the
hood and I start knocking on people's doors talking about
not having any understanding of what's happening here. And I go, Hi,
my name is Nancy Lieberman, and can I can I
help pay your food bill or your electricity or maybe
(06:04):
your rent this month? And this lady. Oh my gosh,
I wish big woman. She starts giving me the hit
and she's just like, girl, what you doing. Somebody's going
to you know, you're going to get hurt and somebody's
going to take And I said, well, if I get hurt,
then I'm not coming back. If I'm not coming back,
who else has knocked on your door recently saying that
they want to help you? And I'm so young and dumb,
(06:26):
I'm twenty two. I'm like, yeah, but I'm going to
leave my I just got back for the Olympics and
I'm the number one draft pick in the WBL and
they're paying me some money, and so people help me.
So I just want to help people. Can you help me?
She goes, you got to put that money in a bank.
I said, well, I don't know anything about a bank.
(06:47):
She goes, how much money you got in there? I said,
thirty thousand dollars. She goes, you're walking around here with
thirty thousand dollars. She goes, women get in here, and
she goes, I'm going to introduce you somebody, and you're
going to set up a bank account and you're gonna
put that money there. So nobody takes it from you, right,
I mean it was organic, it was real, and she
(07:09):
recognized that I was trying to do something right. Sure,
So that's how this thing started. So then finally years later,
I kept doing what I was doing on a small scale,
and I was like, no, people are like, we could
give you real big money, but you have to be
a five to one three. You have to be a nonprofit.
So I went kicking and screaming to be a nonprofit
(07:32):
because I don't want anybody to tell me what to
do at ACU. I need to get on with Oprah
and Phil like Nancy, you need to do that. And
it's like, what, I didn't hear you. So people started
giving me big money. So that's how Nancy Leber Charity started.
So we were like, okay, what do I know best?
(07:54):
I know basketball? So we built courts. That's where I
felt safe. I was never threatened at Rucker Park or
Canarsi or in Brooklyn or Fort Hamilton or wherever I played.
I just played and there was just that street respect.
And so that was one. Then scholarship. How did I
(08:16):
get to college? These guys help me. I get a scholarship.
I make the US team, So let's do scholarships and
get kids education. So we started doing that. Then we
started doing social racial justice lecture series at HBCUs high
schools and colleges. So I'm gonna tell you this quick story.
So we were doing one at Wiley in Wiley, Texas. Says,
(08:41):
I get two hour drive. We're in an auditorium over
at the college and this woman, this black woman, stands
up and she goes, why are you here? And I
looked at her and I went why are you here?
And people were just kind of like, oh my gosh.
I was the only white person there. She says, well,
I don't feel comfortable with you being here, and she's
(09:02):
kind of, you know, reading me the riot act. I said,
you know, ma'am, I have a choice too, right. I
drove two hours here. I'm not getting paid to do this.
I came here because I want to be here. You
guys are my people, and I have a lot that
I want to share. I said, will you do this
for me? Please? If you'll just hear me, and if
(09:25):
in forty five minutes you don't like what I have
to say, then you can leave because I'm coming back
here because I'm making friends by the minute I met
some people will have me at their house or dinner.
And she just kind of looked at me. An hour later,
she came up and she hugged me, and she goes, honey,
I'm sorry, and I go, please, don't tell me you're sorry.
(09:46):
Somebody did something to you. Somebody hurt you that might
have looked like me, and you said that to me
because it hurts you deeply and you're trying to protect
yourself from this hurt. You don't owe me an apology.
I said, I'm sorry that somebody made you feel less
than or whatever that situation was. But me and you
(10:10):
found common ground, and you and I can be friends,
and you will know that somebody actually cares about you,
because at the end of the day, if we cut
each other, there's red blood. Okay, we have hearts. If
we believe in God or you know, I'm a born
again Christian or whatever it is your faith, we can
come together and we can do things in a positive way.
(10:32):
And I'm like, how can I help you? And she's like,
you can come to my house and eat any I
was like, would love to come to your house and eat.
Now I haven't had, you know, Chitlin's I haven't had
what is it grits? I haven't And she.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Goes, honey, what do you like? I said, I like sushi.
She can read serve sushi here, and you know, a
little humor, a little sarcasm, but a lot of truth.
And we bonded and people were applauding. I mean, we
were hugging like we were hostages.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was so little to understand where she came from,
but it was so great to see that she was
open minded and she gave me a chance to talk
and to hear her and believe in her and not
dismiss her. And then she did not dismiss me. In
that novel. We could agreed to disagree. We can agree
(11:32):
to Wow. I didn't see it that way. But at
the end of the day, I say this to my coaches,
I say this to my players. We can agree, we
can disagree, but when we walk out of here, we're
aligned because there's a lot of stuff out there that
we're fighting, and we're fighting together. Because I can break
(11:52):
pencils all day long, because we're picking off one person
at a time. But if you wrap ten pencils and
put her rubber band on it, you can't break us.
You cannot break us. And so if you believe in
something and we can come together, you can't break us.
(12:12):
I don't know. Maybe I'm a minimalist. You can love me,
you can hate me, you can care about me, you
cannot care about me. You can want me on your
show or cue or not want me on your show.
And I'm the one who's grateful. I'm the one who
has gratitude.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Well, if I may, we absolutely want you on our show.
And it's not because of a fantastic conversation or because
we have the same agent or any of those things.
It's because you are the sort of person that is
really an inspiration around here. You mentioned in your story
just now talking about understanding why a woman, a black
(12:56):
woman might have had an aversion to you, just your
presence and worried. Effectually, this is what I think you're saying,
worried about perhaps about your intentions or whatever, and you
being empathetic enough to recognize, Okay, this is not directed
(13:16):
at me. Perhaps someone in this person's past has caused
her to be very cautious when it comes to people
like me, because whoever has potentially caused her harm in
the past may have looked like me, and that level
of empathy and that level of introspection is something that
(13:37):
you find in people who are the most effective, you know,
in terms of allyship and in terms of you know,
people that are their legacy will be that they made
the world better for the folks that lived in the
time that they lived and the people that came after them. Right,
and again, a lot of our listeners kind of have
(13:59):
a similar desire. That's the goal that they want from life.
They want to make sure that they do their part,
that they have given everything back to the universe that
the universe has given them. I of course have consider
myself to be one of those people. I have no
problem working in service, have been very I've lived a
life that I you know, I'm from Compton, I mentioned,
I lived the life that I would have never ever
(14:22):
guessed was even possible, and so to be able to
do work that I feel makes the world better is
exceptionally fulfilling for me. And I do hope that, you know,
I have a zero balance with the universe at the
end of my time, and so stories like that really
do matter, and I think it gives our listeners some
(14:43):
insight into what you know, what it looks like. That's
a lesson that a lot of people might need to
learn at some point, because I think people's impulse is
to become defensive when they are questioned strongly or else to,
you know, I think you mentioned earlier, just to turn
(15:04):
their back like, hey, look I tried, I'm out of here.
And sometimes it takes a little bit more than that,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Your resilience and your fortitude I think is commendable, and
it serves as an example to people who are interacting
with black women right now, who you know, were very,
very focused in their voting this last election and have
been constantly hurt by what nearly all of them considered
(15:34):
to be a hostile administration, right, and so you giving
insight in how to navigate those waters emotionally and internally.
I think that is that's just wonderful and brilliant, and
I'm grateful that you were able to share that story.
I do want to kind of circle back because you
mentioned like, you know, fighting together and just kind of
(15:56):
everybody being on the same page. You know, one pencil
zy to crack. Ten pencils is a lot harder to
crack that they're bound together, that sort of thing, and
that got me to thinking. And I'll tell you a
brief story and I'll give you back the time. But
there's a woman where I live, and she is a
(16:20):
She's not just a legend, she is a gift. She's
legendary in the work that she does, but she's a
great gift. Her name is Audrey Corley, and she owns
a couple of businesses. She owns a nightclub called Boycott,
and she owns a couple of restaurants. But she recently
opened within the past couple of years a restaurant called
(16:42):
Title nine. And when we first started talking, you mentioned
Title nine. And so I want to I want you
to talk to our listeners because I famously Q would
do a lot better in this position. But I famously
am the person that knows very little about sports. Q
is the athlete. I've always been the person walking around
campus with the guitar that sort of stuff, right and
(17:04):
then dejaying later and that sort of thing. Talk to
us a little bit about you know, Title nine. And
I recognize that the same administration that this back that
this ninety two percent of black women voted against, the
same administration has adopted a hostile posture in so far
as Title nine is concerned. So for people like me
(17:24):
that maybe don't know much about Title nine and you
know this administrations, we'll call it adversarial stance with respect
to Title nine. Talk to folks about what it is,
how it maybe has impacted you, and kind of where
you see things moving in the future, and maybe how
people can push back or advocate for Title nine.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'm so glad you said I'm a Title nine.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Baby, Are you okay?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Back in nineteen seventy two, when Title nine is not
an opinion, it's a law, and it gave women chance
to have not only ademic but athletic opportunities because it
was so far from equality with what men had, and
Title nine was trying to It's based on percentages. So
(18:17):
if you have fifty five percent of women at Old
Dominion University and forty five percent men, the grant money
that they get should be divvied up accordingly, right, fifty
five to women, forty five to men. But that's not
what's happening. Most of the money would go to football
programs and men's basketball, and women's sports was lowest on
(18:43):
the totem pall, so you were taking occasional opportunities away
from young women, and as sports has proven, you know,
young black women, you know, except for white women who
are participating. But let me just put this out there.
You are for Title nine if you want your daughter
(19:03):
to have the same educational and you know, educational and
scholarship rights potentially as your little boy. If you're not
for Title nine and you don't want her to have equality,
you have a lot of explaining to do to your daughter. Okay,
that's one thing. If your a dad, you're a mom,
(19:24):
and honey, no, I think your brother deserves to have
a scholarship to college and you shouldn't see how that's
going to go over in your home. So you are
for Title nine if you want quality. I want girl
of equality. Okay, I want to be I'm the highest
paid coach in the Big Three. I want to have
(19:45):
equality in the job that I do if I have
the same job description.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah. No, that's fair. And the truth is that, like
I said, I'm not the person that knows the ins
and outs of all that. So perhaps there's a a
lot more that you know I should learn about, you know,
the goings on with respect to Title nine.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And also, so I'm here, you know, I'm hearing so
much and everybody is going to be able to obviously
weigh in, especially with social media these days, everybody is
going to have an opinion on what's right or what's wrong,
and you just have to go get comfortable.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, I again, I don't. I don't. I don't hear
anything that sounds, you know, too crazy. I don't, I
don't know. What I'm seeing is a woman who is
making an impact. I think that's a super understatement, but
an impact. And you know, I think that yours is
a life that is one that is well lived from
(20:44):
from the outside looking in. So we're kind of towards
the end here. Before I let you go, I want
to give you one more opportunity to plug, you know,
the long game. I want to give you another opportunity
to plug the charities and of course how people can
support and and all your social media and how people
can lock in with you.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you for doing that well. Social media, it's Nancy Lieberman.
It's on all the same on whether it's x or
if it's on Instagram or any of the other you know,
platforms that are out there. The long game is going
to be fun. Please look it up. We're on YouTube
and you could google that, and we're you know, we're
(21:24):
going to do knock Out fifteen episodes this year. You know,
we'll hopefully have Cube and Doctor J and so many
other people, not just athletes, but you know cultural, you know, savants,
and we're looking forward to a lot of different, you know,
different opinions of people and natal Lyman charities. Please check
(21:47):
us out and just see if anything hits your heart
about what we're doing. At best, donate. At worst, just
pray for us that we continue to do the right
thing at the right time the right people. I love
it and prostate cancer. I'm going to end on this.
Please please check check the box. Go to the doctor.
(22:10):
Go to the doctor Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Don't wait and
just get checked. It's between five and eight minutes. They
take your blood tests. They'll get back with you in
a week or week and a half. They'll tell you
what your levels are. Now you know, you can't do
anything if you don't know. And I'll finish with Muhammad Ali.
(22:31):
Service to others is the rent you pay for your
room here on earth. What can I do for you?
How can I help you? That's who we are, that's
who I am, and I'm just trying to continue to
make him proud of me. And thank you for having
me on your show. I appreciate you and you so much.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Absolutely, once again, today's guest Nancy Lieberman Hall of Fame,
basketball legend, pioneer coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth.
And you know, if I may, while we still have
a second left, I want to make sure that I
mentioned again Nancy Liebermancharities dot org. You know, I've been there.
I've been doing a little bit of research on this
(23:13):
good work. I've seen, you know, the courts, the dedications
and the impact that a lot of this make. And
you know, around here we say that, you know, a
lot of times it is infrastructure. There are systemic elements
that improve neighborhoods, that improve the quality of life, that
reduce crime, that result in higher incomes, and you know
all the other things that you know sort of have
(23:36):
a have a ripple effect throughout communities. And you know,
for people where maybe you're moved by sports a little
bit more than by you know, something else, maybe politics
or whatever. If this is the entry point, then this
is the entry point. There is something really special about this.
I caught a picture of you with Kobe's daughter on
(23:57):
a court in California doing a dedicated record out there.
In any event, this is just fantastic work. Once again,
wherever you are in the country, you can get involved.
The website is Nancy Lieberman Charities dot org and I
think I will leave it right there. If you want
to get this full episode, just in case you missed
(24:18):
part of it, you can do a favor. You can
visit Civiccipher dot com. You can also hit that website
and send us any topics that you want us to cover.
You can ask any questions, you can make a donation.
The show continues to grow with your support and we
appreciate that. You can also find out all of our
social media platforms. But if you have your phone in
(24:39):
your hand, you want to lock in what us do,
so at Civic Cipher that is c iv I c
c I, P H E R on all platforms. You
can find me on all platforms at rams's jaw R
M s E S j a q Ward. Keep up
with him and his travels and all the good work
that he is doing. Also send him some well wishes
on his way. He is up against some heavy stuff
as of late on behalf of the show, and all
(25:00):
your support really does matter. Find him at imqward on
all platforms. Again, you can download this in any previous episode.
Once again, check out Nancylibermancharities dot org and get involved
with the good work that is going on that she
is championing in neighborhoods across the entire country. We'd appreciate
(25:20):
your support on our behalf, and I know that Nancy
clearly appreciates your support on her behalf as well. Let's
all do good work together and until next time, y'all peace,
Still broadcasting from the Hip Hop Weekly Studios. I'd like
to welcome you back to Civic Cipher, where our mission
is to foster allyship, empathy and understanding. I'm your host,
Ramsey's job. Big shout out to demand q Ward, who
is on a travel day today. We have a special
guest hanging out with us today who is giving us
a masterclass in advanced allyship. A woman who is leading
(00:24):
a life that I believe is one that has well lived,
one that is full of all of the things that
I think all of us should strive for. A life
of service, a life that is filled with accomplishments, and
a life that anyone could be proud of. All right,
we are back with Nancy Lieberman, the basketball Hall of Fame, legend,
(00:47):
pioneer coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth. Nancy,
before we took a break, you were sharing about your
work with the Big Three, and I think your work
even beyond the Big Three and prior to you know,
incorporating it into the Big Three in terms of getting
(01:08):
messaging out about prostate cancer testing, particularly in the black community,
because you shared a statistic that said that it is
exceptionally more prevalent in black communities, and you know, I
want to just share a quick story that obviously it's
(01:32):
it's tough to go into too granular detail, but I
prostate cancer has been something that has impacted my life personally,
and it is indeed kind of being on top of
it and knowing you know, what resources you have that
(01:52):
kind of helps you navigate those waters. And so not
just you know, you being an advocate for a lot
of the thing because your voice goes into rooms, you know,
your presence affects, you know, patterns that you know a
black person advocating for themselves cannot but not just that work,
(02:12):
but the work in terms of like health and well
being of people that may not get this information or
may feel that there's a stigma that is to be applauded.
It is absolutely commendable, and I just wanted to take
a moment and really address what it is you said
before we took a break, and give it what it deserved.
You know, you mentioned like, hey, I might have gone
(02:33):
on long. Nope, you went on exactly as long as
you needed to. We're grateful that we even get a
chance to highlight this work you're doing and share these stories,
so I know that you do more than just this
one thing. So I want to give you another opportunity
to share this good work that you're doing. So Nancy
Lieberman Charities, this is my understanding. It reaches five million
(02:57):
young people a year. So talk to us about the charities,
talk to us about Dream Court program and your HBCU
partnerships and all those things. Just again, so people a
know what you're up to, would be maybe how they
can support you.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Thank you, Thank you for saying that you know I work.
The best part for me is what I can do
and pull in fifty years of relationships to a young
generation or an older generation. And so Nancy Leeberman Charities
was started because I know your listeners don't know this,
(03:34):
but you know I told you I was a poor
kid in New York. So I in nineteen seventy four,
I did not have any money to go to the
US Olympic tryouts that I had an open tryout. It
was like America's had talent and there was a pre
camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And I come home and
I'm like, Mama, I can believe this. I just made
(03:55):
this USA tryout And twenty people they're getting or ten
gals are being sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico to the
USA pre camp. And she goes, Nancy, I don't have
money to put food on the table. How am I
going to get you to Albuquerque, New Mexico? I said,
I don't know, but you got to figure out. I've
got to go to this thing. It's going to change
(04:16):
my life. And my high school principal, Barbara Sachowitz somehow
she took a can of corn, opened it and cleaned it,
put an envelope around it. When Deverri and to raised
three hundred dollars to send Nancy to the Olympic trials,
it went door to door. I don't even know who
put money in it. It could be dimes, it could
be dollars. I don't know, but it was enough money
(04:36):
to send me and my high school coach to Albuquerque.
So I ended up making that tryout. There were forty girls,
ten from each community, and they brought us together. Then
they picked ten to go to the pre camp with
all the legends of the game future Hall of Famers.
So long story short, Strangers changed my life, right, So
(05:00):
I'm not doing this with you. If people didn't put
money in a cup to send me, and then I
had to do the work. So then, of course, like
we talked about, I made the pan Ams and seventy
five made the Olympics. So I decided, likek, God, if
you would just help me one day, if you could
just change my life, I'll be a great person. I'll
help people. So when I came to Dallas in nineteen eighty,
(05:21):
oh my god, you're not going to believe this. This
is so me. Please just love me. I take a
black bag. So they pay me one hundred thousand dollars
in the first women's professional League, the Dallas Diamonds in
nineteen eighty. So I started doing some appearances here. They
gave me three hundred, two hundred, five hundred. It didn't matter.
It was a lot, but it wasn't like a lot,
(05:43):
so I would put the cash in a black gym back.
Then I go to South Dallas. I go to the
hood and I start knocking on people's doors talking about
not having any understanding of what's happening here. And I go, Hi,
my name is Nancy Lieberman, and can I can I
help pay your food bill or your electricity or maybe
(06:04):
your rent this month? And this lady. Oh my gosh,
I wish big woman. She starts giving me the hit
and she's just like, girl, what you doing. Somebody's going
to you know, you're going to get hurt and somebody's
going to take And I said, well, if I get hurt,
then I'm not coming back. If I'm not coming back,
who else has knocked on your door recently saying that
they want to help you? And I'm so young and dumb,
(06:26):
I'm twenty two. I'm like, yeah, but I'm going to
leave my I just got back for the Olympics and
I'm the number one draft pick in the WBL and
they're paying me some money, and so people help me.
So I just want to help people. Can you help me?
She goes, you got to put that money in a bank.
I said, well, I don't know anything about a bank.
(06:47):
She goes, how much money you got in there? I said,
thirty thousand dollars. She goes, you're walking around here with
thirty thousand dollars. She goes, women get in here, and
she goes, I'm going to introduce you somebody, and you're
going to set up a bank account and you're gonna
put that money there. So nobody takes it from you, right,
I mean it was organic, it was real, and she
(07:09):
recognized that I was trying to do something right. Sure,
So that's how this thing started. So then finally years later,
I kept doing what I was doing on a small scale,
and I was like, no, people are like, we could
give you real big money, but you have to be
a five to one three. You have to be a nonprofit.
So I went kicking and screaming to be a nonprofit
(07:32):
because I don't want anybody to tell me what to
do at ACU. I need to get on with Oprah
and Phil like Nancy, you need to do that. And
it's like, what, I didn't hear you. So people started
giving me big money. So that's how Nancy Leber Charity started.
So we were like, okay, what do I know best?
(07:54):
I know basketball? So we built courts. That's where I
felt safe. I was never threatened at Rucker Park or
Canarsi or in Brooklyn or Fort Hamilton or wherever I played.
I just played and there was just that street respect.
And so that was one. Then scholarship. How did I
(08:16):
get to college? These guys help me. I get a scholarship.
I make the US team, So let's do scholarships and
get kids education. So we started doing that. Then we
started doing social racial justice lecture series at HBCUs high
schools and colleges. So I'm gonna tell you this quick story.
So we were doing one at Wiley in Wiley, Texas. Says,
(08:41):
I get two hour drive. We're in an auditorium over
at the college and this woman, this black woman, stands
up and she goes, why are you here? And I
looked at her and I went why are you here?
And people were just kind of like, oh my gosh.
I was the only white person there. She says, well,
I don't feel comfortable with you being here, and she's
(09:02):
kind of, you know, reading me the riot act. I said,
you know, ma'am, I have a choice too, right. I
drove two hours here. I'm not getting paid to do this.
I came here because I want to be here. You
guys are my people, and I have a lot that
I want to share. I said, will you do this
for me? Please? If you'll just hear me, and if
(09:25):
in forty five minutes you don't like what I have
to say, then you can leave because I'm coming back
here because I'm making friends by the minute I met
some people will have me at their house or dinner.
And she just kind of looked at me. An hour later,
she came up and she hugged me, and she goes, honey,
I'm sorry, and I go, please, don't tell me you're sorry.
(09:46):
Somebody did something to you. Somebody hurt you that might
have looked like me, and you said that to me
because it hurts you deeply and you're trying to protect
yourself from this hurt. You don't owe me an apology.
I said, I'm sorry that somebody made you feel less
than or whatever that situation was. But me and you
(10:10):
found common ground, and you and I can be friends,
and you will know that somebody actually cares about you,
because at the end of the day, if we cut
each other, there's red blood. Okay, we have hearts. If
we believe in God or you know, I'm a born
again Christian or whatever it is your faith, we can
come together and we can do things in a positive way.
(10:32):
And I'm like, how can I help you? And she's like,
you can come to my house and eat any I
was like, would love to come to your house and eat.
Now I haven't had, you know, Chitlin's I haven't had
what is it grits? I haven't And she.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Goes, honey, what do you like? I said, I like sushi.
She can read serve sushi here, and you know, a
little humor, a little sarcasm, but a lot of truth.
And we bonded and people were applauding. I mean, we
were hugging like we were hostages.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was so little to understand where she came from,
but it was so great to see that she was
open minded and she gave me a chance to talk
and to hear her and believe in her and not
dismiss her. And then she did not dismiss me. In
that novel. We could agreed to disagree. We can agree
(11:32):
to Wow. I didn't see it that way. But at
the end of the day, I say this to my coaches,
I say this to my players. We can agree, we
can disagree, but when we walk out of here, we're
aligned because there's a lot of stuff out there that
we're fighting, and we're fighting together. Because I can break
(11:52):
pencils all day long, because we're picking off one person
at a time. But if you wrap ten pencils and
put her rubber band on it, you can't break us.
You cannot break us. And so if you believe in
something and we can come together, you can't break us.
(12:12):
I don't know. Maybe I'm a minimalist. You can love me,
you can hate me, you can care about me, you
cannot care about me. You can want me on your
show or cue or not want me on your show.
And I'm the one who's grateful. I'm the one who
has gratitude.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Well, if I may, we absolutely want you on our show.
And it's not because of a fantastic conversation or because
we have the same agent or any of those things.
It's because you are the sort of person that is
really an inspiration around here. You mentioned in your story
just now talking about understanding why a woman, a black
(12:56):
woman might have had an aversion to you, just your
presence and worried. Effectually, this is what I think you're saying,
worried about perhaps about your intentions or whatever, and you
being empathetic enough to recognize, Okay, this is not directed
(13:16):
at me. Perhaps someone in this person's past has caused
her to be very cautious when it comes to people
like me, because whoever has potentially caused her harm in
the past may have looked like me, and that level
of empathy and that level of introspection is something that
(13:37):
you find in people who are the most effective, you know,
in terms of allyship and in terms of you know,
people that are their legacy will be that they made
the world better for the folks that lived in the
time that they lived and the people that came after them. Right,
and again, a lot of our listeners kind of have
(13:59):
a similar desire. That's the goal that they want from life.
They want to make sure that they do their part,
that they have given everything back to the universe that
the universe has given them. I of course have consider
myself to be one of those people. I have no
problem working in service, have been very I've lived a
life that I you know, I'm from Compton, I mentioned,
I lived the life that I would have never ever
(14:22):
guessed was even possible, and so to be able to
do work that I feel makes the world better is
exceptionally fulfilling for me. And I do hope that, you know,
I have a zero balance with the universe at the
end of my time, and so stories like that really
do matter, and I think it gives our listeners some
(14:43):
insight into what you know, what it looks like. That's
a lesson that a lot of people might need to
learn at some point, because I think people's impulse is
to become defensive when they are questioned strongly or else to,
you know, I think you mentioned earlier, just to turn
(15:04):
their back like, hey, look I tried, I'm out of here.
And sometimes it takes a little bit more than that,
you know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Your resilience and your fortitude I think is commendable, and
it serves as an example to people who are interacting
with black women right now, who you know, were very,
very focused in their voting this last election and have
been constantly hurt by what nearly all of them considered
(15:34):
to be a hostile administration, right, and so you giving
insight in how to navigate those waters emotionally and internally.
I think that is that's just wonderful and brilliant, and
I'm grateful that you were able to share that story.
I do want to kind of circle back because you
mentioned like, you know, fighting together and just kind of
(15:56):
everybody being on the same page. You know, one pencil
zy to crack. Ten pencils is a lot harder to
crack that they're bound together, that sort of thing, and
that got me to thinking. And I'll tell you a
brief story and I'll give you back the time. But
there's a woman where I live, and she is a
(16:20):
She's not just a legend, she is a gift. She's
legendary in the work that she does, but she's a
great gift. Her name is Audrey Corley, and she owns
a couple of businesses. She owns a nightclub called Boycott,
and she owns a couple of restaurants. But she recently
opened within the past couple of years a restaurant called
(16:42):
Title nine. And when we first started talking, you mentioned
Title nine. And so I want to I want you
to talk to our listeners because I famously Q would
do a lot better in this position. But I famously
am the person that knows very little about sports. Q
is the athlete. I've always been the person walking around
campus with the guitar that sort of stuff, right and
(17:04):
then dejaying later and that sort of thing. Talk to
us a little bit about you know, Title nine. And
I recognize that the same administration that this back that
this ninety two percent of black women voted against, the
same administration has adopted a hostile posture in so far
as Title nine is concerned. So for people like me
(17:24):
that maybe don't know much about Title nine and you
know this administrations, we'll call it adversarial stance with respect
to Title nine. Talk to folks about what it is,
how it maybe has impacted you, and kind of where
you see things moving in the future, and maybe how
people can push back or advocate for Title nine.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'm so glad you said I'm a Title nine.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Baby, Are you okay?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Back in nineteen seventy two, when Title nine is not
an opinion, it's a law, and it gave women chance
to have not only ademic but athletic opportunities because it
was so far from equality with what men had, and
Title nine was trying to It's based on percentages. So
(18:17):
if you have fifty five percent of women at Old
Dominion University and forty five percent men, the grant money
that they get should be divvied up accordingly, right, fifty
five to women, forty five to men. But that's not
what's happening. Most of the money would go to football
programs and men's basketball, and women's sports was lowest on
(18:43):
the totem pall, so you were taking occasional opportunities away
from young women, and as sports has proven, you know,
young black women, you know, except for white women who
are participating. But let me just put this out there.
You are for Title nine if you want your daughter
(19:03):
to have the same educational and you know, educational and
scholarship rights potentially as your little boy. If you're not
for Title nine and you don't want her to have equality,
you have a lot of explaining to do to your daughter. Okay,
that's one thing. If your a dad, you're a mom,
(19:24):
and honey, no, I think your brother deserves to have
a scholarship to college and you shouldn't see how that's
going to go over in your home. So you are
for Title nine if you want quality. I want girl
of equality. Okay, I want to be I'm the highest
paid coach in the Big Three. I want to have
(19:45):
equality in the job that I do if I have
the same job description.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah. No, that's fair. And the truth is that, like
I said, I'm not the person that knows the ins
and outs of all that. So perhaps there's a a
lot more that you know I should learn about, you know,
the goings on with respect to Title nine.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And also, so I'm here, you know, I'm hearing so
much and everybody is going to be able to obviously
weigh in, especially with social media these days, everybody is
going to have an opinion on what's right or what's wrong,
and you just have to go get comfortable.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, I again, I don't. I don't. I don't hear
anything that sounds, you know, too crazy. I don't, I
don't know. What I'm seeing is a woman who is
making an impact. I think that's a super understatement, but
an impact. And you know, I think that yours is
a life that is one that is well lived from
(20:44):
from the outside looking in. So we're kind of towards
the end here. Before I let you go, I want
to give you one more opportunity to plug, you know,
the long game. I want to give you another opportunity
to plug the charities and of course how people can
support and and all your social media and how people
can lock in with you.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you for doing that well. Social media, it's Nancy Lieberman.
It's on all the same on whether it's x or
if it's on Instagram or any of the other you know,
platforms that are out there. The long game is going
to be fun. Please look it up. We're on YouTube
and you could google that, and we're you know, we're
(21:24):
going to do knock Out fifteen episodes this year. You know,
we'll hopefully have Cube and Doctor J and so many
other people, not just athletes, but you know cultural, you know, savants,
and we're looking forward to a lot of different, you know,
different opinions of people and natal Lyman charities. Please check
(21:47):
us out and just see if anything hits your heart
about what we're doing. At best, donate. At worst, just
pray for us that we continue to do the right
thing at the right time the right people. I love
it and prostate cancer. I'm going to end on this.
Please please check check the box. Go to the doctor.
(22:10):
Go to the doctor Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Don't wait and
just get checked. It's between five and eight minutes. They
take your blood tests. They'll get back with you in
a week or week and a half. They'll tell you
what your levels are. Now you know, you can't do
anything if you don't know. And I'll finish with Muhammad Ali.
(22:31):
Service to others is the rent you pay for your
room here on earth. What can I do for you?
How can I help you? That's who we are, that's
who I am, and I'm just trying to continue to
make him proud of me. And thank you for having
me on your show. I appreciate you and you so much.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Absolutely, once again, today's guest Nancy Lieberman Hall of Fame,
basketball legend, pioneer coach, broadcaster, and lifelong advocate for underserved youth.
And you know, if I may, while we still have
a second left, I want to make sure that I
mentioned again Nancy Liebermancharities dot org. You know, I've been there.
I've been doing a little bit of research on this
(23:13):
good work. I've seen, you know, the courts, the dedications
and the impact that a lot of this make. And
you know, around here we say that, you know, a
lot of times it is infrastructure. There are systemic elements
that improve neighborhoods, that improve the quality of life, that
reduce crime, that result in higher incomes, and you know
all the other things that you know sort of have
(23:36):
a have a ripple effect throughout communities. And you know,
for people where maybe you're moved by sports a little
bit more than by you know, something else, maybe politics
or whatever. If this is the entry point, then this
is the entry point. There is something really special about this.
I caught a picture of you with Kobe's daughter on
(23:57):
a court in California doing a dedicated record out there.
In any event, this is just fantastic work. Once again,
wherever you are in the country, you can get involved.
The website is Nancy Lieberman Charities dot org and I
think I will leave it right there. If you want
to get this full episode, just in case you missed
(24:18):
part of it, you can do a favor. You can
visit Civiccipher dot com. You can also hit that website
and send us any topics that you want us to cover.
You can ask any questions, you can make a donation.
The show continues to grow with your support and we
appreciate that. You can also find out all of our
social media platforms. But if you have your phone in
(24:39):
your hand, you want to lock in what us do,
so at Civic Cipher that is c iv I c
c I, P H E R on all platforms. You
can find me on all platforms at rams's jaw R
M s E S j a q Ward. Keep up
with him and his travels and all the good work
that he is doing. Also send him some well wishes
on his way. He is up against some heavy stuff
as of late on behalf of the show, and all
(25:00):
your support really does matter. Find him at imqward on
all platforms. Again, you can download this in any previous episode.
Once again, check out Nancylibermancharities dot org and get involved
with the good work that is going on that she
is championing in neighborhoods across the entire country. We'd appreciate
(25:20):
your support on our behalf, and I know that Nancy
clearly appreciates your support on her behalf as well. Let's
all do good work together and until next time, y'all peace,
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