Cynthia Cooper-Dyke
Cynthia Lynne Cooper-Dyke is an American basketball coach and former player who has won championships in college, in the Olympics, and in the Women's National Basketball Association. She is considered to be one of the greatest female basketball players ever. Upon the WNBA's formation, she played for the Houston Comets from 1997 to 2000, being named the Most Valuable Player of the WNBA Finals in four straight seasons.
Cooper served as the coach of the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA from 2001 to 2002. In the NCAA, she was college coach for UNC Wilmington, Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern, and USC between 2005 and 2022.
Cooper-Dyke was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. She has been member of every WNBA Anniversary Team since their creation. In 2011, Cooper was voted by fans as one of the top 15 players in WNBA history.
Early years
High school
Cooper attended Locke High School before enrolling at the University of Southern California. Cooper participated athletically in both track and field as well as basketball. She led her team to the California State Championship scoring an average of 31 points per game, and scoring 44 points in one game. Cooper was named the Los Angeles Player of the Year.College
Cooper was a four-year letter winner at guard for USC from 1982 to 1986. She led the Women of Troy to NCAA appearances in all four years, Final Four appearances in three of her four years, and back-to-back NCAA tournament titles in 1983 and 1984. After the 1984 Championship, she briefly left school, but was persuaded to return. She completed four years with USC, although she did not graduate. Cooper closed out her collegiate career with an appearance in the 1986 NCAA tournament championship game and a spot on the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team. Cooper ranks eighth on USC's all-time scoring list with 1,559 points, fifth in assists and third in steals. While Cooper was at USC, the Women of Troy compiled a record of 114–15. She earned her bachelor's degree from Prairie View A&M University in 2005.USC statistics
Source| Year | Team | GP | Points | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
| 1982–83 | USC | 25 | 351 | 48.5% | 67.0% | 3.6 | NA | 14.0 |
| 1983–84 | USC | 33 | 313 | 47.0% | 50.8% | 4.1 | NA | 9.5 |
| 1984–85 | USC | 25 | 233 | 46.6% | 64.6% | 3.5 | NA | 9.3 |
| 1985–86 | USC | 36 | 620 | 50.6% | 74.8% | 4.6 | 2.9 | 17.2 |
| Career | 119 | 1517 | 48.7% | 66.4% | 4.0 | 0.9 | 12.7 |
Career
Team USA
Cooper was named to represent the US at the 1981 William Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan, while still in high school. The team won seven of eight games to win the silver medal for the event. Cooper scored 2.8 points per game and recorded nine steals.Cooper was selected to represent the US at the inaugural Goodwill games, held in Moscow in July 1986. North Carolina State's Kay Yow served as head coach. The team opened up with a 72–53 win over Yugoslavia and followed that with a 21-point win over Brazil 91–70. The third game was against Czechoslovakia and would be much closer. Cheryl Miller was the scoring leader in this game, scoring 26 points to help the US to a 78–70 victory. The US faced Bulgaria in the semi-final match up, and again won, this time 67–58. This set up the final against the Soviet Union, led by 7-foot-2 Ivilana Semenova, considered the most dominant player in the world. The Soviet team had a 152–2 record in major international competition over the prior three decades, including an 84–82 win over the US in the 1983 World Championships. The Soviets held the early edge, leading 21–19 at one time, before the US went on a scoring run to take a large lead they did not relinquish. The final score was 83–60 in favor of the US, earning the gold medal for the US squad. Cooper averaged 2.0 points per game.
Cooper continued to represent the US with the national team at the 1986 World Championship, held in Moscow, a month after the Goodwill Games in Moscow. The US team was even more dominant this time. The early games were won easily, and the semifinal against Canada, while the closest game for the US so far, ended up an 82–59 victory. At the same time, the Soviet team was winning easily as well, and the final game pitted two teams each with 6–0 records. The Soviet team, having lost only once at home, wanted to show that the Goodwill games setback was a fluke. The US team started by scoring the first eight points, and raced to a 45–23 lead, although the Soviets fought back and reduced the halftime margin to 13. The US went on a 15–1 run in the second half to put the game away and ended up winning the gold medal with a score of 108–88. Cooper averaged 5.9 points per game.
Cooper played for USA Basketball as part of the 1987 USA Women's Pan American Team which won a gold medal in Indianapolis, Indiana. Cooper was a member of the gold medalist 1988 US Olympic Women's Basketball Team., and the Bronze Medal team in 1992.
International
Cooper played for several teams in the European leagues:During her time playing for Samoa Bétera, a Spanish team, she was the league leading scorer with 36.7 ppg. During the almost ten years she played in the Italian leagues, she was the league's leading scorer eight times and finished second the other two years.
In 1987, she was the MVP of the European All-Star team. She was also named to the All-Star team of the Italian leagues in 1996–1997.
WNBA
At the age of 34, Cooper signed to play with the Houston Comets. Cooper has the distinction of scoring the most points out of all players who participated in the first day of the WNBA's conception. On June 21, 1997, 58 women across 6 teams suited up to kick off the WNBA's first scheduled day of competition. On that day, the Comets earned a 76–56 win over the Cleveland Rockers where Cooper recorded 25 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. She was the only player that day to score 20+ points, thus making her the first player in WNBA history to have a 20-point game.She led the league in scoring three consecutive years, leading the franchise to a record four WNBA Championships. In addition, she was voted the WNBA's MVP in 1997 and 1998 and named Most Valuable Player in each of those four WNBA Finals. On July 25, 1997, Cooper set the record for the most points scored by a first-year player when she scored 44 points against the Sacramento Monarchs. This record still stands 28 years later but it was tied by Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers on August 20, 2025, when Bueckers recorded 44 points in an 80–81 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. Many sources cite Bueckers as the "official" record holder for most points scored in a game by a rookie. This is because when Cooper set the record in 1997, it was the WNBA's inaugural season, so every player in the league was technically a "rookie" and many players already had professional basketball experience from playing in other leagues.
Cooper was named the 1998 Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation. During the Comet dynasty, she was a vital part of the triple threat offense with Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson. When retired in 2000, Cooper became the first player in WNBA history to score 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 2,500 career points. She scored 30 or more points in 16 of her 120 games and had a 92-game double-figure scoring streak from 1997 to 2000. She went on to coach the Phoenix Mercury for one and a half seasons.
Cooper returned as an active player in the 2003 season and played only 4 games during that season with the Comets. Her appearance in the game on May 22, 2003, as a 40-year-old, made her the oldest player, at the time, to play in a WNBA game.
Cooper's final WNBA game ever was played on June 1, 2003, in a 68–64 loss to the Minnesota Lynx with Cooper recording 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
Afterward, she served as a TV analyst and halftime reporter for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Cooper has also been named one of the top 15 players in the WNBA at the 2011 WNBA All-Star game. During Game 1 of the 2016 WNBA Finals, she was named in the WNBA Top 20@20.
Career statistics
| † | Denotes seasons in which Cooper won a WNBA championship |
| WNBA record |
Regular season
Playoffs
College coaching career
Prairie View A&M (2005–2010)
In May 2005, Cooper was named the head coach of the women's basketball team at Prairie View A&M University. In her second season in 2006–07, Cooper-Dyke led the underdog Panthers to their first SWAC women's basketball tournament title and NCAA tournament appearance. Cooper-Dyke was named SWAC Coach of the Year for 2007.In January 2008, the NCAA penalized Prairie View for NCAA rules violations committed by Cooper, reducing the number of scholarships for the team. The school was placed on four years' probation for "major violations" in 2005–2006 that ranged from Cooper giving players small amounts of cash to various forms of unauthorized practices. Cooper also gave players free tickets to Comets game, which is another NCAA infraction.
In five seasons at Prairie View, Cooper-Dyke had a cumulative 86–72 record.