For sure Lisa Leslie is a basketball legend, but she is much more. Not only did she help pave the way for women in the sport and the WNBA, but she also played in several Olympics, was an All-Star player numerous times, and after retiring from the WNBA in 2009 she has continued to help women in the sport.
Here are 10 things about WNBA pioneer and legend Lisa Leslie.
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Lisa Leslie recently got put in the middle of a controversy centering around an interview she did with Gayle King for CBS. During the interview, King repeatedly asked Leslie about Kobe Bryant and the sexual assault allegations that were dismissed in 2003.
King asked Leslie: “It’s been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge which was dismissed in 2003, 2004. Is it complicated for you, as a woman, as a WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) player?”
Despite being asked the question over and over, she stood up for Kobe and answered by saying it was “not complicated for me at all,” adding that Bryant had never behaved like “the kind of person that would be (or) do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way.”
King received major criticism — and even death threats — for her handling of the interview.
While Lisa Lesia may be the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game, she’s been dunking a long time — since high school. And her high school dunk is legendary.
While in high school she once scored 101 points in a game. And it was in the first half of that high school game.
“The date was February 7th of 1990 and the game was between Leslie’s Inglewood Morningside High vs South Torrance High. Leslie came out blazing, scoring 49 points in the first quarter and 52 in the second, giving her a total of 101 and her teammates a total of 1. The opposing team only managed to score 23,” Ball Is Life reported.
“The points I scored weren’t easy,” said Leslie, who made 37-of-56 shots and 27-of-35 from the charity stripe in just 16 minutes. “There were not a whole lot of layups. They sent all five players after me the whole game, and I tried not to pay attention to it.”
Leslie led the team to two state championships.
Leslie was six feet tall in seventh grade. And being so tall wasn’t easy for her as a teen. In fact, Leslie hated it when people would ask her if she played basketball. But after reluctantly picking up the sport in middle school, she was hooked,” Biography.com reported.
The Gardena, California-born athlete stayed close to home when she went to college, selecting women’s basketball powerhouse the University of Southern California (USC).
She graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in communications and later completed her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix.
While at USC, Leslie “played in a total of 120 college games, averaging 20.1 points, hitting 53.4 percent of her shots, and knocking down 69.8 percent of her free throws. She set the Pac-10 Conference records for scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots accumulating 2,414 points, 1,214 rebounds, and 321 blocked shots. She also holds the USC single-season record for blocked shots (95),” according to Wikipedia.
Leslie earned All-Pac-10 recognition all four years and became the first player in Pac-10 history to obtain first team all four years and earn the Pac-10 Rookie of the Year award in 1991. She earned a ton of other awards, including the USBWA Women’s National Player of the Year award, the Honda Sports Award for basketball, and the WBCA Player of the Year award.
Leslie made her first trip to the Olympics in 1996 when the event was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The U.S. women’s basketball team took home the gold medal.
“Leslie has made four consecutive Olympic appearances, and has earned four gold medals. She was the second female basketball player ever to earn that many gold medals, after Teresa Edwards. Leslie has also made appearances with the United States national women’s basketball team where she won gold medals in 1996 and 2000, and has also earned a world championship. Leslie scored 35 points against Japan in the semifinals of the 1996 Olympics to set an American Olympic women’s scoring record,” according to Wikipedia.
When Leslie landed a contract with the WNBA in 1997 she became one of the new league’s first players. She joined the Los Angeles Sparks and had an impressive career with the team. In 2001, she was the first WNBA player to win the regular-season MVP, the All-Star Game MVP, and the playoff MVP in the same season,” Biography.com reported.
She led the Los Angeles Sparks to two back-to-back WNBA Championships (2001 and 2002).
Due to pregnancy, she sat out of the 2007 WNBA, returning to the Sparks in 2008.
In 2009, Leslie released her autobiography, “Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You,” before completing her final season with the Sparks.
Since retiring, Leslie has worked as a sports commentator and analyst for such channels as ABC, NBC, Fox Sports Net, FOX Sports Florida, ESPN, and Turner.
“Leslie returned to her beloved Sparks team in 2011, but this time as an investor, not a player. She is now one of the team’s owners, and has also decided to share her knowledge and skills with others through the Lisa Leslie Basketball & Leadership Academy,” Biography.com reported.
Leslie is currently the head coach for Triplets in the BIG3 professional basketball league. And, of course, they are a winning team.
