Cynthia Cooper-Dyke biography
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, née Cynthia Cooper, (born April 14, 1963, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American basketball participant who was the primary Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). In the WNBA’s inaugural season (1997), Cooper led the league in scoring whereas main her group, the Houston Comets, to the championship. She was named MVP of each the common season and the playoffs that 12 months.
Cooper was raised within the Watts part of Los Angeles. She started enjoying organized basketball at age 16 and shortly took to the game. She earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California, the place she performed within the shadow of Cheryl Miller whereas serving to the group to nationwide championships in 1983 and 1984. After faculty Cooper performed professionally in Europe, primarily for a group in Parma, Italy, the place she blossomed right into a potent scorer and a tenacious defender. She was a member of the 1988 U.S. nationwide group that received the gold medal on the Olympic Games in Seoul.
By the tip of the WNBA’s inaugural season, Cooper had established herself because the league’s first nice participant. Along with star teammates Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, Cooper led the Comets to titles in 1998, 1999, and 2000, every time being acknowledged because the MVP of the playoffs. She was named the league MVP for the second time in 1998. Cooper retired in 2000 and have become the top coach of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury the next 12 months. In 2001 she additionally married Brian Dyke, and she or he had twins the next 12 months. She returned to enjoying basketball in 2003 and completely retired from the sport in 2004 with WNBA profession per-game averages of 21 factors, 4.9 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.56 steals.
Cooper-Dyke was the ladies’s basketball head coach at Prairie View (Texas) A&M University from 2005 to 2010. She later coached on the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (2010–12), Texas Southern University (2012–13; 2019– ), and the University of Southern California (2013–17). She was chosen for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.