In honor of Women's History Month I wanted to highlight one of my favorites female athletes of all time, Lisa Leslie. The hall of famer was one of the pioneering players of the WNBA and an icon to the game of basketball as a whole. Leslie is arguably the GOAT of women's basketball for her accomplishments in not just the WNBA but in College as well as the Olympics. For this article, I will highlight several moments from Lisa Leslie's legendary basketball career from high school to the WNBA.
Lisa Leslie was born July 7, 1972 in Compton, California. She played high school basketball at Morningside High School in Inglewood, California. Her impact on the girls varsity team came immediately as she started every game and was able to dunk in the open court by her sophomore year. That year she won the California State championship and led her team in scoring and rebounding. By the time she was a senior she was by far the best player in the country as her most impressive moment was not even winning another state championship. Her best moment was dropping 101 points in the first half of a game which tied the national record for points scored by a high school player.
When it came time to make her decision of where she would further her education and basketball career she had options from all the over the country but chose to stay close to home. She picked the University of Southern California where she would help to continue the success of the basketball powerhouse. Leslie played all 4 years at USC where she garnered a lot of personal and team success. For her career, she averaged 20.1 Points per game and 10.1 rebounds per game winning numerous awards such as national freshman player of the year award in 1991. In her 120 games played at USC, the team's overall record was 89-31 where they earned 4 NCAA tournament appearances. They also won one Pac-10 conference championship where Leslie dominated earning All-Pac-10 all four years which had never been done before.
Before Leslie started her WNBA career in 1997, she started her post-collegiate career playing in Italy for Sicilgesso, which was a team that was part of the European women’s professional league. She was an Olympian as she made her first of four Olympic appearances in 1996. She won her first of four gold medals and also set a record by scoring 35 points points in a single game. Her success in Olympic basketball was as dominant as her WNBA career, as she is one of two players with 4 gold medals. She became the USA's all-time leading scorer, rebounder, and shot blocker in Olympic competition and had double digit scoring averages in every appearance of her Olympic career.
In the Summer of 1997, The WNBA's Inaugural season officially began. Leslie was drafted by her hometown team, The Los Angeles Sparks where she quickly became the face of the new league.
Leslie averaged 15.9 points per game her rookie year then improved to 19.2 points her second year. She also had immediate team success as her Sparks made the playoffs five consecutive years before winning her first title and finals MVP in 2001. She averaged 19.5 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game that season which helped her earn her first WNBA MVP award.
The championship dominance of the early 2000's in Los Angeles wasn't just done by the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. Leslie followed up her first championship season with another championship run where she not only won back to back titles but consecutive finals MVP awards respectively. A memorable moment in not only Leslie's career but in WNBA history occurred on July 30th 2002, when she became the first player in the WNBA to dunk. Leslie continued to add to her trophy case as as she won her first of two career defensive player of the year awards and second MVP award in 2004. That same season, she became the third player in WNBA history to record a triple double, when she had 29 points, 15 rebounds and 10 blocks. She also become the first player to reach the 4,000 point plateau.
Leslie remains the Spark's career scoring and rebounding leader as she averaged 17.3 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game in her 12 year WNBA career. For her career, Leslie was an eight time all-star and eight-time first team All-WNBA honoree. In Leslie's final season, she became the first player to score 6,000 points in a career. Leslie retired from the WNBA in 2009 holding multiple statistical records. In 2011, She was voted in by fans as one of the top 15 WNBA player of all time for her outstanding career achievements as part of the 15th anniversary of the WNBA. Leslie was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as well as the Women's basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Lisa Leslie's incredible legacy as one of the pioneers of the WNBA inspired a generation of women to play basketball. WNBA superstar Candace Parker characterized Leslie best when she said "As an athlete and as a woman her legacy leaves no doubt that she's a real OG." Her ability to inspire others was not just limited to women, as ever since I was a young boy I admired Lisa Leslie's greatness. When I was in grade school, my basketball coach told me and the rest of the team that if we really desired to learn the fundamentals of basketball we had to watch the WNBA just as much as the NBA. Being that I was already a Lakers fan it just made sense for me to check out a Sparks game. I'll never forget watching my first WNBA game and seeing Lisa Leslie play. From there, I learned that the game of basketball was beautiful and fun to watch no matter the gender of the person playing.
Source: WNBA YouTube Channel
Great article