Nancy Lieberman is making a comeback at the age of 50 to play one game. Yup, one game. And that picture, is from 1980!

SCOTT JACOBS

Just two days after the brawl that sent shockwaves through the sports scene (girls fight?), the WNBA is getting some more attention. Just don’t expect to last much longer then a week.

Nancy Lieberman who is 50 years old is returning to the court. Not to coach. To play.

“It’s really a one-game deal,” Lieberman said. “My motivation stems from the fact that I love this game and I never stopped playing it whether it’s a pickup game with Deion Sanders and Tony Romo at a church or at a park with my son.”

Um? What?

So it’s a gimmick then! Strut a 50 year old girl or woman, or half a century old woman onto the court. It’s perfect. Everyone will start taking the league seriously again.

What is this? Semi-Pro? What’s a matter Will Ferrell, too busy promoting Step Brothers to announce to the world that this is all part of the filming for Has-Been, coming to theaters August 2009?

What’s the movie about? Well, its about this league that wants to be taken seriously, but they also will do anything for attention. So they sign a former coach and general manager of like eight years ago to play… for one week. And lest us remind you: this is not a gimmick. Nope, not a gimmick whatsoever!

“This is not a gimmick,” Detroit Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said. “I talked to her last year about this and again two weeks ago. This opportunity probably would’ve happened if we didn’t have the incident the other night.”

So let me get this straight. It’s not a gimmick, but she’s going to play one game? What are we supposed to call that Mr. Laimbeer? A cameo appearance?

The whole thing cries of one big fat joke.

And the WNBA really wonders why no one takes it seriously?

I’ve got a reason. Because of things like this. And how did this opportunity basically present itself? It all stemmed from another brawl involving a Detroit pro team. And what happened in that brawl? Shock assistant coach Rick Mahorn was suspended 2 games in the melee, because he went onto the court to try to break things up in a peaceful manner. Instead, he was suspended for basically shoving a woman, not an athlete, to the ground.

As they were saying on Jim Rome is Burning today, you can’t take the league seriously, when it promotes itself as women first, athletes second. If it sounds like oh my goodness, she just struck that 32 year old mother, no one will ever take these people as serious athletes.

Dara Torres set an American 50-meter freestyle record in the U.S. Olympic trials. She is an inspiration. A great story. Lieberman’s story just screams of a publicity stunt.

I might be apt to believing that its a legit player move by the Shock if it wasn’t for “one game.” When I saw the deal originally, I believed it was for a week, because, just like everyone else, she had to earn her playing time.

Nope, she just wants to play a game. One game.

It would be a cool story if she showed up at training camp, and legitimately tried to make the team. That would be a cool story. But she signed a one week contract to play one game. This isn’t about proving that 50 year old women can do amazing things. This is a scheme to give Lieberman some attention, and a sagging league some press.

O it’s working. Just don’t say it isn’t a gimmick.

We all know it is.

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