Lisa Leslie: Basketball

Future Hall of Famer

Photo: bleacherreport.com

Standing 6-foot-5-inches tall, she dominates any room she enters and any basketball court she graces with her presence. Early in life, Lisa Leslie did not even consider playing basketball, the sport she loves today, in fact, she adamantly refused. Like most young girls, she struggled to define herself, but it was more difficult for Leslie given her impressive stature. It was so simple and so clear to everyone around her that her height would equip her with a powerful presence on the basketball court. However, she was not convinced and her willful personality would fuel her opposition to the notion of playing basketball. Finally a friend’s determination swayed her to try out for the team in seventh grade. And destiny took over. Of course, Leslie’s strong work ethic, commitment, and resolve to better her game didn’t hurt either.

She was the consummate athlete, always looking for the next edge and a way to excel. Whether it was improving her fitness level through additional training, perfecting the skills she would need on the court through drills and shooting practice, or even playing pickup against the boys so that someone could challenge her presence on the court, she was always taking it to the next level. Leslie possessed an inherent fortitude and strength of mind at an early age and those attributes also made her a force to be reckoned with on the court. She credits her mother for those qualities and for teaching her to stand tall in all realms of life. Her mother, Christine Espinoza, instilled those lessons early and often in life despite being gone frequently during Leslie’s youth. Her mother worked as a cross-country truck driver to earn a living to sustain her three daughters, since Leslie’s father had left the family when she was four.

Leslie continued to mature through life’s struggles and make her own way in the world through the sport of basketball. At Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, she earned national attention for her play and by the time she was a junior USA Today selected her as a first team high school All-American. Her talents were unbelievable, delivering an average 21.7 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 6.2 blocks per game that year. As a senior, Leslie challenged Cheryl Miller’s national record for points in a single game; in a regular season match up with South Torrance High, she scored 101 points before halftime. Her team had contributed one additional point to bring the score to 102-24 against their opponents at the half. Unfortunately, the embarrassment was too much for the South Torrance team and they forfeited the rest of the game, eliminating Leslie’s chance of breaking the record of 105 points, still held by Miller today. While her personal victory was cut short, the team triumphed with a California state title in women’s basketball later that season. In that championship game, Leslie managed 35 points, 12 rebounds, and seven blocked shots despite suffering from the chickenpox. Her performance earned her the prestigious Naismith Award. She was not only a standout in basketball, as she also earned varsity letters in volleyball and track and served as class president for three years. These collective efforts yielded her the Dial Award for the nation’s top high school student athlete. She could have ventured across the country to any school of her choice to play collegiate basketball, but she chose to remain close to her roots in Los Angeles, California, and selected USC.

The accolades continued in college, further cementing her name into the sport’s record books. She earned honors such as Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, Pac-10 first-team all four years (the first freshman to earn the honor), and All-American honors in 1992, 1993, and 1994 when she won her second Naismith Award. Her play continued to dominate the courts and helped her team to four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments and two Elite Eight appearances. USA Basketball took notice of the phenom and recognized her as Female Athlete of the Year in 1993. Her future with USA Basketball had yet to unfold and no one could have predicted the impact that Lisa Leslie would have on the sport of basketball, especially the women’s game. While she had limited success early in the U.S. basketball arena, trying and failing to make some teams, she led others to gold medals in the World University Games and Goodwill Games.

After she graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in communications, she was left without an opportunity to play in her own country, so she traveled abroad to pursue her passion for basketball in Sicilgesso, Italy. “I think we are cheated as a gender,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “No one knows what happens to all the great people in our game. It seems like we’re written off.”¹ In 1996, she garnered the opportunity to play in her home country on the world’s stage when the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, Georgia. Her versatile play as a center could not be matched by the rest of the world and the United States captured Olympic gold. She earned the single-game U.S. Olympic record for most points with 35 in the international bout. After the Games, women’s basketball had gained enough momentum to establish its own professional opportunity in the United States, and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was born. Leslie was selected to play for her hometown team, the Los Angeles Sparks.

Her illustrious career only perpetuated the success of the sport and her own personal fame. Leslie may be one of the most aggressive women to play center and many have compared her seamless, yet aggressive, style of play to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but her willowy, model-like appearance has also helped to establish women as beautiful, powerful athletes. Leslie was not only a professional basketball player, but also a model for the renowned Wilhelmina Models agency. When she was not gracing the basketball court with her superb skills, she was gracing magazine covers like Vogue with her stunning smile, proving that women can have it all.

Her prowess on the court captured two WNBA Championships for the Sparks and two MVP titles, with both honors coming in 2001 and 2002. On July 30, 2002, she elevated the women’s game above the rim, quite literally, as she became the first woman to slam dunk a basketball in a professional game. Her game has always dominated the international stage, including team gold medals in the 1998 and 2002 World Championships and her personal MVP in 2002.

Her golden touch at the Olympics is simply awe-inspiring. She led the U.S. women to gold in Sydney in 2000 and ended the 2004 Athens Olympics as the U.S. all-time Olympic leading scorer with 407 points and another gold medal. Only one female basketball player had earned four gold medals at the Olympics, Teresa Edwards, but no one had ever earned four consecutive gold medals in women’s basketball until Lisa Leslie led Team USA to victory in Beijing in 2008. What is even more impressive is that it was her first season back after giving birth to her daughter, Lauren in 2007. Leslie has become an accomplished working mother as well, even running off the court during a pre-game warm up to tend to her daughter’s needs. Leslie missed playing with the national team in 2006 due to family circumstances; the team earned bronze at those World Championships. Her spark was definitely missed.

The U.S. women’s national team head coach, Anne Donovan, summed up Leslie’s omnipresence when she returned to the team: “Just her talent and what she brings to the team both offensively and defensively, but her presence and her leadership and her experience and all those gold medals that she’s won, it’s just really great to have her back on the court with us.”² Leslie ended her Olympic career in Beijing this year by fouling out with six minutes and 33 seconds remaining in the game, not uncommon for her aggressive style of play. She walked off the court to a loud ovation for her years of service, the attention she brought to the game on the international and domestic scene, and, most of all for the charisma, style, and dedication with which she played the game.

Notes

1. Gale Schools. Celebrating Women’s History: Lisa Leslie, http://www.galeschools.com/womens_history/bio/leslie_l.htm.

2. 2008 NBC Beijing Olympics. Athletes: Lisa Leslie Bio, http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=547/bio/index.html.

This except was written by Stacy Martin-Tenney.