Name Is Same; Options Are Not

A woman will be president of the United States sooner than a woman will coach a men’s professional or college basketball team.

That’s the way of the sports world.

Men are welcomed as coaches for women’s teams. Women are invisible when it comes to being coaches for men’s teams.

Tonight at Staples Center, Michael Cooper will coach the Sparks and Cynthia Cooper will coach the Phoenix Mercury. Nine of the coaches in the 16-team WNBA are men, seven are women.

In a trendsetting league that aims to provide new opportunities for women in pro sports, many men have been head coaches. This is the beauty of women who play sports. They are interested in learning from the best, most experienced people. Men or women.

Michael Cooper’s knowledge of pro basketball, the library he has in his brain of the ins and outs of being a Laker, of being a champion, the intense appreciation Cooper has of defense, all that background is welcomed by the women on the Sparks. It wasn’t welcomed as much by the Lakers, when Cooper was an assistant to Magic Johnson for 15 games and to Del Harris for several seasons.

“No question,” Cooper says, “the ladies want to be coached more than the men.”

Men like Cooper, Miami Sol Coach Ron Rothstein, Richie Adubato of the New York Liberty, and Sonny Allen, who recently retired as coach of the Sacramento Monarchs, have given to the WNBA a certain legitimacy, according to Seattle Storm Coach Lin Dunn.

“Those men all coached in the NBA,” Dunn says, “and the knowledge those men have of the pro game, of how to be a professional basketball player, has been good for the NBA. They have given the WNBA some credibility when the league needed some. Those men coached elite athletes in the NBA and they had the desire to coach elite athletes in the WNBA. How could you not want those men coaching these women?”

Cynthia Cooper is an example of what the WNBA will keep providing: women who grew up playing top-level basketball in high school, college, the Olympics, professionally--who quit playing and pass on their knowledge.

After leading the Houston Comets to four consecutive WNBA titles as a player, Cynthia Cooper retired to become a coach.

Both Coopers became coaches for the same reason. They love the game. They love watching film and drawing up plays on the chalkboard. They love talking about basketball. They love when young players gather in a circle and listen to what they have to say and then do what they suggest.

Once Michael Cooper dreamed of being the Laker head coach.

“It was a gradual dream,” Cooper says. “I admired the way Pat Riley would break down games, how he would watch film and pick up so many things about a player or a team.

“When I retired, I was an assistant to Jerry West and I learned a lot from him. From knowing both those men, I realized I wanted to be a coach. First I thought I wanted to coach in college, men’s teams. Then I realized my dream was to coach the Lakers.”

When he was an assistant to Magic and to Harris, Cooper thought he was on the path to his dream. When Harris was fired, so was Cooper. He went to work for Fox Sports. He commentated on high school games. He went to watch a women’s summer league at USC. Cooper ended up filling in as an interim coach for a team and loved it.

So Cooper was ready when the WNBA arrived in Los Angeles. He applied for the coaching job. Linda Sharp was hired. “But I was honored to have been interviewed,” Cooper says.

When Sharp was fired and Orlando Woolridge was hired, Cooper became an assistant. When Woolridge lost the job, Cooper was hired. It was a natural progression. It happens all over sports. For men.

As Dunn says, “Women are much more open-minded than guys are. There have always been opportunities for men to coach women. The opposite? That’s kind of the last frontier. I don’t know of any profession that is discouraged more. Women are presidents of corporations, they re sports editors, they are just about everything but president of the United States or coaches of men’s teams.”

Both Coopers--Michael and Cynthia--think women would make good men’s coaches. Michael Cooper suggests that Cheryl Miller--”She’s smart, she’s got a fiery personality and she’s been involved at all levels of the game.”--would make a fine NBA or men’s college coach.

The men are losers here. Cynthia Cooper, who has won Olympic and WNBA championships, has a lot of basketball knowledge. She is bothered a bit, she says, because as the WNBA ages, there are more men coming into the league. “At first,” Cooper says, “most of the coaches and refs were women. Now there are more men coaching and there are many games where all three officials are men.

“It’s great the men want to be involved and that women are open-minded, but it’s not so great that women don’t have those chances on the other side.”

Michael Cooper says he doesn’t dream all the time now of being Laker coach. He would not turn the job down, but he also enjoys what he has. “I’m coaching people who want to learn and who listen,” he says. “I’m not sure I want to give that up.”

The thing is, Michael Cooper can switch sides someday if he wants to. Cynthia Cooper says she wouldn’t mind coaching men someday. The thing is, right now, she can’t.

Female athletes will benefit. Male athletes won’t.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.