CLEVELAND — There weren’t screams of outrage across the basketball landscape when the coaching staffs for Saturday’s inaugural Women’s College All-Star Game were announced several weeks ago, but there were whispers and raised eyebrows.

Did you hear? Can you believe it? What were they thinking?

The questions revolved around the inclusion of Cynthia Cooper as a volunteer assistant. While definitely a basketball legend, which is how she and the three other coaches were described in the announcement, Cooper also was the focal point of a damning and disturbing 2022 investigative report by The Athletic that outlined allegations of inappropriate, vulgar and verbally abusive behavior toward players on multiple teams over multiple decades.

GO DEEPER

Former players accuse Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of demeaning, demoralizing and abusive behavior

She resigned from Texas Southern two years ago and had stayed out of the coaching spotlight until her photo appeared alongside those of Nancy Lieberman, Janice Braxton and Cheryl Miller in the press release. The reaction may have been muted nationally, but the pain was very real among the former players who spoke out in the article.

“She needs to apologize to every player she hurt publicly and make a statement,” one of them told The Athletic…