Sunlight pours in through the Gordon Biersch Brewery’s gaping, warehouse-style windows. Just a mile north of the Thomas & Mack Center, the day’s Summer League slate stands 30 minutes from tipoff. Former NBA All-Star Antawn Jamison dips fried calamari into cocktail sauce. His agent, Debbie Spander, sits across the lunch table, her short, brown hair hanging just above her shoulders. In between bites of their appetizer, conversation leads Spander to explain the meaning of her Hebrew name, Deborah.
“The direct translation is ‘be,’” Spander says. Further, the prophet Deborah appears in the book of Judges, and is the only female judge mentioned in the Bible.