Photo Credit: Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images
With the NBA playoffs starting this weekend, it would only be right to include one of the most recognizable female basketball players. Lisa Leslie is a legend and rightfully so. She shattered multiple records in the WNBA, debunked the stereotype of not being able to juggle kids as a professional athlete with being a model and actress.
Leslie’s start with basketball began in high school. She attended Morningside High School where she led the team to two state championships. In addition to basketball, she also played on the volleyball team and was a part of the track and field team. After high school, she attended the University of Southern California, earning a degree in communications.
She played basketball all four years of college. During that time, she set many of the Pac-10 conference records for scoring, rebounds and blocked shots. During her freshman year she was named Rookie of the Year. She graduated in 1994, but the WNBA wouldn’t be founded for another two years. Instead, Leslie focused on her modeling career. In 1997, Leslie was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks. She made an immediate impact and was the driving force behind the team’s back-to-back wins in 2001 and 2002. She was named the WNBA MVP, Finals MVP, and the All-Star Game MVP in 2001.
Her impact did not just stay within her own team, though. She became the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game, first WNBA player to reach 6,000 career points and in 2009, became the first woman to pick up 10,000 points, rebounds, and assists. She announced her retirement in 2009, leaving behind a legacy that not many WNBA players have been able to top.
Leslie was also a member of the Team USA Women’s Basketball team. She represented the United States in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Every year she played, she helped to bring a gold medal back to the US. She also participated in the USA World Championships in 1998 and 2002 where she helped bring home gold medals.
In 2006, Leslie married her husband before becoming pregnant a year later. After giving birth, she was able to get back on the court in 2008. Even though she would eventually retire the next year, she showed how much hard work pays off. Her work ethic is something that no one ever doubted and when asked what was special about her, her coach Michael Cooper pointed to it.
All of her hard work eventually paid off as she was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. Leslie doesn’t see herself as a pioneer or trailblazer. She insists that she wanted to connect with the fans which are something that seems to be missing a little bit these days. While she has left her basketball days behind, she still works to get girls involved with sports, mainly basketball. “There are so many stereotypes that go along with women in sports, for example, that I’ve tried to break, just in the way I’ve carried myself. I’m very comfortable in my own skin.” Being the co-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, an analyst, author and entrepreneur is just a tiny part of the impact that Lisa Leslie has made along with being an excellent basketball player and it doesn’t look like she’ll stopping or slowing down anytime soon.
