 |
Cynthia CooperAmerican basketball player and basketball coach
Date of Birth: 14.04.1963
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Cynthia Cooper
Cynthia Cooper is an American basketball player and basketball coach. She was born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, where she attended Locke High School. After graduating in 1982, Cooper enrolled at the University of Southern California.
University Career
Cooper was a standout player for the USC Trojans basketball team, which won the NCAA championship in 1983 and 1984 and reached the finals in 1986. Her exceptional performance led to her inclusion in the 1986 tournament team.
National Team Success
Following her university career, Cooper played for the United States women's national basketball team. In 1987, the team won the basketball tournament at the Pan American Games held in Indianapolis. The following year, they won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul. In 1990, Cooper was part of the team that became world champions, and in the 1992 Olympics, she won a bronze medal.
Professional Career
When the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) was formed in 1997, Cynthia Cooper was already 34 years old, but her age did not prevent her from becoming one of the first stars of the new premier women's league in the United States. In 1997 and 1998, she was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Cooper played for the Houston Comets, which won the WNBA championship for four consecutive years from 1997 to 2000. During those four years, Cooper was named the Most Valuable Player of the finals each time. In 2000, Cooper announced her retirement as a player and transitioned to coaching, becoming the head coach of another WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury. However, her tenure with the Mercury was unsuccessful, as the team did not qualify for the playoffs in either of the two seasons she coached.
Later Career
After leaving the Phoenix Mercury, Cooper briefly returned to playing for the Houston Comets in 2003, but only appeared in four games before officially retiring from playing. She then worked as a television analyst and commentator for Comets games. In 2005, Cooper was appointed as the head coach of the women's basketball team at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. In her second season as coach, the university team won the Southwest Atlantic Conference tournament and made their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. In 2009, Cooper was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 2010, she became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Cynthia Cooper married Brian Dyke in 2000, and on June 15, 2002, she gave birth to twins, a son named Brian Jr. and a daughter named Cyan.
