If you’re in touch with the true basketball lore then you know and remember the great Cynthia Cooper.
She played in the first-ever WNBA season and was the first woman to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame. She’s an Olympic gold medalist and four-time WNBA champion.
Some still consider her to be the Michael Jordan of women’s basketball.
Cooper, now the head women’s basketball coach at Texas Southern University, was the latest guest on The Knuckleheads Podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson.
She talked about her time at USC playing with Cheryl Miller, starting her USA Basketball career in 1987, the iconic Houston Comets team, and how playing with guys growing up helped her develop her scoring mentality.
Around the 50-minute mark of the episode, Cooper goes into her desire to coach in the NBA.
“What I’m absolutely made for is coaching in the NBA. They have my mentality.”
She follows up by amping her voice to proclaim that she brought the euro-step to the forefront, not Houston Rockets superstar James Harden.
Harden would often be compared to another lefty, Manu Ginobili, who made the famed euro-step move more popular. Lots of internet trolling accompanied Harden’s rendition as many argued whether or not he should be called for traveling.
Dwyane Wade was another repeat user of the move in downhill and transition situations.
If you watch enough film on Cynthia Cooper you’ll see her scoring in every which way. It’s completely possible that she was euro-stepping at the time.
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As far as coaching in the NBA, the possibility for Cooper shouldn’t be too far off as more women are being accepted into those ranks.
