CNNSI.com - SI For Women - 100 Greatest Female Athletes

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Use the menu below to read our biographies of the century's greatest sportswomen and then tell us who you think should be No. 1. Also, be sure to check out our expanded home page and our new issue which is on newsstands now.

44. Nancy Lieberman-Cline, Basketball

1958-
Twice led Old Dominion to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championship

Lieberman had the game of basketball firmly in hand. Walter Iooss, Jr.
Her no-look passes baffled opponents and teammates alike. So sleight of hand was point guard Nancy Lieberman with a basketball that her peers dubbed her "Lady Magic." Lieberman learned her craft as well as her trademark toughness and grit on the asphalt playgrounds of Queens, New York where she played against boys and men bigger and stronger than she. Such tenacity would serve her well, first at Old Dominion and later while playing against men at the professional level. As a high school student, Lieberman competed in the Pan Am Games in 1975 and became the youngest member of the 1976 silver-medal winning U.S. Olympic team. During her four-year career at ODU (1976 to '79) Lieberman twice led the Lady Monarchs to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championship. After her college career, Lieberman played for two seasons (1986 and '87) in the United States Basketball League and with the Washington Generals, longtime rivals of the Harlem Globetrotters, during the 1987-'88 season. One of her Generals teammates, Tim Cline, later became her husband. In 1997, Lieberman-Cline suited up for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA's inaugural season. After one season with Phoenix, she retired from pro basketball at age 39, and today serves as the general manager and coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock.

They Said It: ``She was the beginning of the scoring point guard, the flashy point guard, who could drive and dish and post you up" -- Naismith Hall of Famer Cheryl Miller

-- Richard Deitsch

Athletes were selected by Sports Illustrated For Women, Sports Illustrated and CNN/SI editors, writers and correspondents who considered the athletes' on-field performance and achievements, plus their contributions to women's sports. Because athletic achievement was a key criterion, women whose contributions were made solely in administration and coaching are not included.