“I used to hate basketball.”
Not exactly the words you’d expect to hear from someone who has devoted her entire life to the sport.
At one point, Laurie Byrd figured she would give up basketball to run cross country when she reached high school at Hamady. Not being allowed to join her brothers on the court for pick-up games soured her on hoops for a bit.
“I hated it, because they would never let me play,” Byrd said. “I was like, ‘OK, forget basketball; just go do something else.’ When I got to ninth grade, I had to choose between the two, cross country or basketball. I couldn’t do both.”
It was actually the encouragement of her older brothers that directed her toward basketball.
“Both my brothers were like, ‘You can always run. Just play basketball,’” Byrd said. “That’s why I chose basketball.”
It was a decision that opened up a world of possibilities for Byrd.
After scoring more than 1,000 career points at Hamady, she became the all-time leading scorer at Eastern Michigan, then embarked on a 16-year pro career in four European countries and the United States.
“I would’ve never imagined that playing basketball would take me abroad,” Byrd said. “It was so nice. Everywhere I went, they treated me nice. I never would’ve thought I would see another part of the world and be able to go to different countries. I was just blessed to have that opportunity.”
She just missed out on the inaugural season of the WNBA in 1997. Byrd was playing in the rival American Basketball League at the time and got a tryout with the WNBA’s Detroit Shock near the end of her career, but the league allowed only one ABL player per team.
“Not to say I was going to make it or anything,” Byrd said. “They had Jennifer Azzi, who played in the ABL. Nancy Lieberman asked me to come try out. I was grateful for that. That was huge.”
Byrd’s WNBA experience came as an assistant coach. The highlight of that phase of her career came in 2003 when she was on Bill Laimbeer’s staff for a WNBA championship with the Shock. She also had coaching stints with Houston, New York and Washington.
“I’m just so blessed to have the opportunity to coach,” Byrd said. “Just giving back is awesome. Teaching and mentoring young women was great.”
Following her WNBA coaching career, Byrd coached at Santa Fe Christian High School in California from 2011-19 before becoming the head coach at MiraCosta College in 2019. She expected to retire when she moved to Las Vegas after her time at MiraCosta, but she was hired as an assistant coach with the College of Southern Nevada in 2025.
“It’s just because of the passion and love of the game I have,” said Byrd, a 1978 Hamady graduate. “I should’ve known. My parents coached for years, too, so I should’ve known it’s in our blood. I never would’ve thought it would be this long. I still love it, still enjoy it.”
Byrd is the daughter of Flint legend Joe Byrd, who was head coach of the 1992 U.S. Olympic boxing team. Brother Chris Byrd was a two-time world heavyweight champion.
“As I got older, it was very competitive in our household,” Byrd said. “We played in every sport, even in the backyard when we were younger. Football, you name it, we played it. We were all competitive.
“I always thought when I played against girls and women that I had played against my brothers, so no woman could really beat me. It was like an edge we had when we competed in our sports.”
Byrd played basketball and volleyball and competed in track and field at Hamady, but boxing wasn’t part of her multi-sport upbringing. Younger sister Tracy did take up boxing later in life, turning pro at the age of 32 and winning three women’s world championships.
“I said, ‘No,’” Laurie said. “I enjoyed watching it and enjoyed the training and the conditioning, because it helped me with basketball.”
All the Byrd kids were up by 6 a.m. for early-morning runs before school.
“That was my first love, distance running,” Byrd said. “I remember running with my dad when he used to train. I just had to pick a sport in college and it was basketball, but I loved running.”
At EMU, Byrd scored 1,899 career points from 1978-82, a record that stood until Tavelyn James scored 2,470 from 2008-12. Byrd’s scoring average of 19.2 is still an EMU career record.
During her pro career, Byrd led her team to a championship in Switzerland in 1985-86 and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player in Sweden the following season.
While playing in the Swiss league, Byrd had an incredible 69-point performance shortly after joining her team.
Her agent apparently told her team that she was 6 feet, 5 inches, when in fact Byrd was 5-6. There was some disappointment when her team first set eyes on her, but that didn’t last long.
“He said, ‘I told them you were 6-5, so go prove you can play like you’re 6-5,’” Byrd said. “So, in our third game, I was just feeling it that day. I’m not a 3-point shooter, more of a mid-range shooter. I think I had only one 3-pointer. I was just in a zone that day. I was just feeling it.”
Unfortunately for Byrd, she was born just a little too early to showcase her talent on a bigger stage in the WNBA.
“It would’ve been awesome to be able to play in your country and have your parents and people come watch you play,” she said.
Laurie Byrd’s current induction into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame is her fifth such honor. She is already in the AAU Hall of Fame, the Gus Macker Hall of Fame, the Eastern Michigan University E-Club Athletic Hall of Fame, and the Greater Flint African American Sports Hall of Fame. Additionally, she was nominated for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
