Nancy Lieberman, one of the most well-known figures in women's basketball in the United States, is proud and excited about the signing of her son, TJ Klein at Maccabi Tel Aviv ("one of the kindest people I have ever met"). Why she converted to Christianity ("still feels 100% Jewish") • Maternal interview
Nancy Lieberman.
"I needed something else"
Photography:
Oded Karni
Nancy Lieberman is one of the best-known figures in women's basketball in the United States, and perhaps even the best-known.
She is the youngest basketball player to win an Olympic medal (18), the first to play in an official men's team and also the first to coach a men's team.
In short, groundbreaking in every sense of the word.
To basketball fans in Israel, she is known as the mother of TJ Klein, ex Hapoel Holon and the new player of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"I am happy for TJ and very proud that a team like Maccabi wants him," she told Israel Today in the first interview since her son's signing with the yellow club.
In recent days, TJ has written on social media that dreams come true.
Was it really your dream to come to Maccabi?
"It's a question that should be addressed to him and it's unfair for me to speak on his behalf. I left the broadcast before the game between Oklahoma and Phoenix to talk to you, and I'm focused on the things I need to do in life as a coach and commentator. My dreams have already come true. "I am his mother and I want to support him in any way I can and I want him to know how proud I am always. You do not play for Maccabi without working hard in life. He has invested a lot not only in the game but also in the body, and he loves the game and I am happy the game is wonderful."
Every mother is proud of her children, but in Lieberman's case, pride seems to be several times stronger.
"TJ is one of the kindest people I've ever seen," she says in response to a request to expand on her son as a person and not just as an actor, "he can connect with someone 90 or 10. He just loves a person. He has a beautiful way of treating and caring for people. .
"On the pitch he is very competitive and if we were playing together there would be a war, because I am also super-competitive. Listen, I'm not just confusing in the mind, he's kind, funny, the kind of people who connect people."
"TJ will probably be mad at me for telling, but when someone has no money he will pay for it. He makes people happy. I remember when he played at Richmond College I came to visit him and he was with a little boy of 6 or 7 and with his father. Never. I met the father, but he came and gave me a hug and said I have the nicest son in the world.I asked what he meant and he said his son has cancer and TJ gave them tickets to all the games, and after the games he always takes the boy to the floor and lets him throw To the basket and put it on the shoulders.
"The father said it really changed the child's life. You know Tetty Jay really hates people talking about him. If I tell him 'what a beautiful thing you did' he will immediately stop me and say 'Mom, enough'. He's just sweet and tough, very wanting. "Forever and deep in his soul he is a little boy. I am proud of him."
I read you coached him when he was young, how did it go?
"I will be honest with you. When TJ was 9-10 he did not want me to coach him. He wanted a separate identity of his own and not like his mother's. It was a struggle between me and him, because everyone wants to know that they are valued because of who they are and not because of their parents. Their.he tried to find the balance.I told him I would not fight him or train him.
"Only in high school did he ask me to coach him. At first I refused and told him I did not want to quarrel with him every day, so he promised not to quarrel. And we really did. At that time he made a U-turn and had an amazing season in high school. He was more successful than expected everywhere. "And his body and his mind and his understanding and attention to detail, was amazing. Not many kids talk to their mom on the phone about basketball. It's fun we can talk. He's a smart guy."
Have you ever considered the possibility of training him in the team he will play for?
"I never thought about it. I want him to have his career, and I'll just be the mom who supports him. I want to be his address if he needs me, and not that I'll have to cross the lines and yell at him for not taking a rebound. I do not want to do that. To my child. "
TJ signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv until the end of the season with an option for another season. Do you think this relationship can continue in the coming seasons?
"It will already be a decision by Maccabi."
In recent years, TJ has tried to reach the NBA. How many times can Maccabi help him fulfill this dream?
"Everything is possible, everything is always on the table. You have to play strong, be healthy and succeed, and from there anything can happen. Maccabi does not take you just to take. They play to win. They are like the Lakers, the Celtics, the New York Yankees, they do not take you "To be nice, they take you because they think you can add value to their heritage. They have played against NBA teams in the past, they have an international reputation and compete for the championship every year. I really think it can help T.J."
Between 2015-2018, Lieberman served as assistant coach at the Sacramento Kings and also worked with Omri Caspi, who will now collaborate with her son in the yellow uniform.
"Crazy what five years do to a man. Omri and I lived in the same residential complex and from time to time I would go to him and stay with him and his girlfriend. TJ then was in college and from time to time he would come to visit and train.
"In the craziest dreams, they did not believe that they would ever be members of the team. We did not think that T.J. would be a professional and then also move to play in Europe and we certainly did not talk about a possible move to Israel. I win we would talk about Shai Doron who was successful in the WNBA, Omri is really proud of him. "
"You will not know how good we are if we do not get the job"
As mentioned, Lieberman (62) broke ground for many women in American basketball and is now considered one of the most influential figures in integrating women into senior positions in the industry.
"I think you will be a head coach at the NBA when Adam Silver - who is the best commissioner in world sports - wants to. The direction the league is aiming for is equality and that's an important part of it."
"When I coached in the Big 3 and we won the championship two years ago, people said 'wow, how can a woman win a championship as a coach.' The ball does not know I'm a woman. If you work hard and you have good players around you you will succeed. I just have to make players better. .
"Becky (Trust, Greg Popovich's senior assistant at the San Antonio Spurs, YM) is not playing against players, she just needs to make them better, and be a good teacher of the game.
So there are women executives in the largest companies in the US, the vice president is a woman, so why can't there be a woman who gets the opportunity to coach. If you give us the opportunity you will find that we are good enough. If we do not do good work, do what men do, resign. But you will not know how good we are if we do not get the job. "
She's never been a coach in the men's Premier League in Israel, do you want to make history here as well?
"It does not depend on me. I think the owner of Hapoel Holon (Shlomo Isaac, YM) told me a few years ago that he does not see this happening in your country in Israel.
People stand in our way and do not want change.
If there is an opportunity, I will do everything to win and win degrees in Israel as well. "
"I have both Jesus and Moses"
Lieberman was born in Brooklyn to Jerome and Renee Lieberman, a couple of religious Jewish parents, but did not find herself in Judaism as she would immediately explain and therefore decided to convert to Christianity.
Despite this, she still defines herself as 100 percent Jewish, and after a visit to Israel in 2011, she said that the visit changed her view and now she wants to be connected to the Jewish community and its culture.
"I will always define myself as a Jewish woman," she says, "People will not understand what I went through as a child and sometimes you do what needs to be done. Because of my family situation I needed something to help me build my confidence, and I did not have because my father left and we were poor I grew up in the 60's and was constantly told I was stupid and would never get anywhere in life, and they were mean to me.
"I went to a Jewish school, but even there I was constantly harassed. I was tired of being judged. Instead of the community telling me what I could do, they kept telling me what I could not do. I needed something else. Instead of going to crime or hurting people, I have both Jesus and Moses today in the baggage I carry. I'm fine, when others smoke or do other things to unload, I have found Jesus in my Jewish life. I refuse to let anyone else make me be someone who is not me. If it annoys people That is their business. "
Did your baggage and the change you made affect TJ and his education?
"It didn't affect him at all. He has an amazing dad and a loving mom. We tried to take care of him and give him everything. If people are worried about what his mom chooses to believe, it's their fault."
"I will not speak on his behalf, because it is not fair," she continues, "but I know that T.J. loves Israel, the fans in Holon were good to him and he was very involved in the community. For me when someone is in the same place for three years and then returns, "It shows that he wants and enjoys being in Israel. I am happy to see him return to the place with great significance for my family and for him personally."