LOS ANGELES - Of all the awards and accolades Cynthia Cooper-Dyke has earned throughout her illustrious career as one of the best women's basketball players in history, the white banner hanging in the rafters of the Galen Center saluting her four years at USC may hold the most meaning.
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That is not to say that Cooper-Dyke doesn't cherish the Olympic gold medal she won in 1988, value the four straight WNBA championships she won with the Houston Comets or appreciate being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last year alongside other legends including Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen.
It's just that USC was where her career was launched and where she discovered that anything was possible.
Cooper-Dyke had her No. 44 jersey retired during halftime of the Trojans women's 65-61 overtime win against Washington on Sunday afternoon, joining Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Miller as the third USC women's basketball player to earn that distinction.
"The first thing that comes to mind is opportunity, just the chance that USC gave a kid from Watts to have success," says Cooper-Dyke, who helped the Trojans to consecutive national championships in 1983 and 1984. "This was my first opportunity, true opportunity, to do something really good with my life.
"I think when I look up there, the first thing I think of is who would ever believe that a little girl from Watts could have achieved some of these goals and have my jersey retired at USC? That to me is very special."
USC women's basketball head coach and former Los Angeles Lakers great Michael Cooper, no relation to Cynthia, marveled at Cooper-Dyke's career.
Having coached the Los Angeles Sparks for eight seasons prior to taking over at USC, Cooper remembered being on the losing end of battles against Cooper-Dyke's Comets.
"Coop has not always been my favorite; in the WNBA, she beat us three times for the championship," Cooper said with a laugh. "But just for women's basketball, she has done tremendous things showing they can play on a different level and making it possible for women to go overseas and be successful here in the states.
"It's an honor that we as a coaching staff had that opportunity to be able to raise her jersey and put it in the rafters."
Were it not for her faith in God, the unconditional, tough love of her mother Mary Cobbs, her coaches at USC and an assistant coach at Locke High School, Cooper-Dyke might not have made it out of Watts.
Cobbs raised Cooper-Dyke and her seven siblings in the urban neighborhood located about 10 miles southeast of USC's campus in Los Angeles.
To keep her children fed and a roof over their heads, Cobbs received welfare and government aid before working as a custodian for the Southern California Rapid Transit District. Because Mary worked long days, Cooper-Dyke's older sister, JoAnne, was responsible for making sure the kids did their homework and made smart life choices.
But it was Cobbs' strength and encouragement that held the family together.
"My mom taught me how to persevere through the tough time life brings you, and growing up in Watts, you have plenty of tough times," Cooper said. "You're surrounded by drugs and violence and gangs.
"My mom was just amazing. I know it was tough on her, and she never had time because my mom worked so she was never there physically, but you knew she was in the background working for your good."
Cooper-Dyke's mother died of breast cancer in 1999, but not before getting to witness her win two WNBA MVP awards, along with championships and a gold medal. To honor her mom and former N.C. State women's coach Kay Yow, who coached the gold-medal winning 1988 Olympic team and died of breast cancer in 2009, Cooper-Dyke remains actively involved in charitable endeavors to raise money to find a cure and awareness about the disease.
With two older sisters, two younger sisters, two older brothers and one younger brother, Cooper-Dyke spent her early years trying to figure out her own identity. Sports provided some answers and gave her a sense of purpose while keeping her from succumbing to life on the street.
"Once I started playing sports, the gangs and really everyone in my neighborhood kind of rallied around me," Cooper-Dyke said. "They left me alone.
"They helped me and protected me to allow me this opportunity at success."
Incredibly, Cooper-Dyke didn't start playing basketball until the summer before her sophomore year at Locke High School.
She was in the gym when she saw another girl drive to the basket, put the ball behind her back and hit a layup. Though she was already a track and field star, watching the girl inspired her to take up hoops.
She credits Locke assistant coach Lucias Franklin with teaching her how to play and says the fact that she didn't have any social media outlets to distract her enabled her to become a great basketball player.
"Once I started to play basketball, I fell in love with it and so it didn't cost me anything to put in the extra work necessary to be good," Cooper said. "I wanted to learn everything.
"I wanted to do it well and I wanted to be the best at it, so I put in the necessary time. I was always in the gym. When you're in the gym all the time, you can make up for lost time with no problem."
Yet no matter how good she became, the prospect of playing college basketball still wasn't guaranteed because back then, schools weren't allowed to pay for recruits to take official visits.
A few universities recruited Cooper-Dyke to run track, but she longed to play basketball.
After Cooper-Dyke led Locke to the state championship while averaging 31 points per game, USC head coach Linda Sharp offered her a scholarship.
She enrolled in USC in fall 1981 and remains ninth on the school's all-time scoring list (1,559 points), seventh in assists (381) and third in steals (256) while helping the Trojans to a 114-15 record.
"I have a lot of fond memories of Coach Sharp getting mad at me because I was out playing on the outside courts (with regular students) and I was a full scholarship athlete," Cooper-Dyke said with a smile.
Her time at USC was marred by a tragedy off the court when her older brother, Everett "Ricky" Cooper, was killed in a gang fight during her junior year. Knowing she needed to help her mom support her family, Cooper-Dyke then quit school to work as a teller at First Interstate Bank.
That didn't last long, however, once USC assistant coach Fred Williams showed up at her doorstep.
"Fred Williams came to Watts and got me and said, 'You need to get your behind back in school.'
"Had I not gone back to school, I would not have played professional basketball, I would not be getting my jersey retired and I would certainly not be in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame."
It is her undying passion to teach the game she loves to young women and inspire them to achieve great things the way Sharp and Williams did that led her to become a college coach after she retired from the WNBA in 2003.
In her first season as UNC-Wilmington's head coach this year, the Seahawks are 22-7, including 14-4 in the Colonial Athletic Association. UNCW is the CAA's third seed heading into the conference tournament that starts Thursday.
Cooper-Dyke spent the previous five seasons as head coach at Prairie View A&M, where she guided the Lady Panthers to two NCAA tournament appearances and one NIT appearance.
"It's coaches like Linda Sharp and Fred Williams that are the true heroes in women's basketball because had they given up on me and let me go, I would not have had this level of success or maybe not any level of success," Cooper said. "But they believed in me and they saw something special in me, and that's the type of coach I want to be."
