Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper is on all short lists when discussion begins about the greatest ever women’s players. She is one of the few women to claim a Grand Slam of basketball championships – NCAA, Olympics, World, and WNBA. Cooper played in college at the University of Southern California (USC), winning NCAA titles with them in 1983 and 1984. She won an Olympic title in 1988 and added a bronze medal in 1992. Cooper was a World Champion with the US team in 1990. She won four consecutive WNBA titles with the Houston Comets from 1997-2000. Cooper also won a gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games.

Before the WNBA arrived in the late 1990s, Cooper played in Europe, playing with Samoa Bétera in Spain in 1986-87, where she averaged 36.7 points/game, then with Parma in Italy from 1987-94, and finally with Alcamo, also in Italy, from 1994-96. During this time she became fluent in Italian. In her 10 years in Europe, she led her league in scoring eight times.

Cooper joined the Comets in 1997, at age 34, but still led the WNBA in scoring three consecutive years. She was WNBA MVP in both 1997 and 1998, and while leading the Comets to four consecutive WNBA titles, was named the WNBA Finals MVP each time. She was the first WNBA player to surpass 1,000, 2,000, and 2,500 career points. Cooper initially retired after the 2000 season, and coached the Phoenix Mercury for 1½ seasons, but returned to play in the WNBA in 2003. She finally retired from professional basketball in 2004, at age 40.

After retirement, Cooper did some televisions color analysis for Houston Rockets games in the NBA, but then went into college coaching. She started at Prairie View A&M in 2005, but later coached at UNC Wilmington, Texas Southern, and in 2013 returned to her alma mater at USC, coaching there through 2017. After another stint back at Texas Southern she retired from coaching in 2022. Cooper was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, the first WNBA player to be inducted.