Karl Malone's Hall moment included Grambling legend Willis Reed

Willis Reed hasn't played in the NBA in more than 30 years, but the New York Knicks great dished out an unlikely assist Friday night. He introduced Louisiana Tech product Karl Malone for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Reed played college football just a few miles down the road, at Grambling.

Reed said he received a surprising phone call while the former Utah Jazz standout was fishing in Alaska. "Being a homeboy," said Reed, 68, who, like Malone, is also a Louisiana native, "he likes to hunt and fish like me. That's one of the things I admired about Karl is his great work ethic. "But I thought he would've asked (former Jazz coach Jerry) Sloan or (teammate John) Stockton."



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New UNCW coach humbled to be joining basketball hall of fame

On Friday, former Prairie View A&M University coach and alumna Cynthia Cooper-Dyke will become the first former WNBA player to be inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

"I don't think it has completely sunk in yet. I still think I'm wavering on the edge and I don't really feel like a hall of famer, but I think when I get to Springfield (Mass.) and I start to do the different events I will start to feel like an inductee of the class of 2010," the first-year UNC-Wilmington women's basketball coach said earlier this week.

"It's an amazing feeling to know that you are being honored and rewarded for all of the sacrifices that you have made throughout the years."

Cooper-Dyke grew up as one of eight children being raised by a single mother. It's here where Cooper learned her best trait, hard work. "My mom was just a special woman," Cooper-Dyke said. "She raised eight kids by herself in the (Los Angeles) inner city of Watts. She worked her way from welfare to having a job and taking care of the eight kids by herself and she did a terrific job."

With that life, basketball wasn't something Cooper-Dyke grew up with. She didn't start playing competitively until she was a teenager, yet led her Locke High School team to its first state title as a senior. That was Cooper-Dyke's first taste of a championship, but it certainly wouldn't be her last.



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