Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie was born on July 7, 1972 in Gardena, California. She is a basketball player in the WNBA. She is a three-time WNBA MVP and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner. The number seven pick in 1997 inaugural WNBA draft, she followed a career at University of Southern California with seven WNBA All-Star appearances and two WNBA championships over the course of eleven seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks, before retiring in 2009. Lisa stands 6’5’’ and weighs 170Ib. She was the first player to dunk in a WNBA game. She was considered a pioneer and cornerstone of the league during her WNBA career.
By the time that Lisa was in middle school in California, she had grown to be over 6’1’’ but never participated in athletic activities, besides tetherball and double dutch. Her dream was to be a television weather reporter. During the first few weeks of junior high, a classmate begged Lisa to help out the basketball team. She became ambidextrous by playing basketball. In eight grade, she transferred to a junior high that did not have a girl’s basketball team, and joined a boys’ basketball team. Her success there contributed to her confidence in her playing abilities. At 14, before she had even started high school, she received more than 100 college recruiting letters, including some of the top Division I programs at the University of Tennessee and Stanford University. Lisa participated in track, and in volleyball. She ended up being a state qualifier in the 400 meter run, and high jump. In the final game of her 1989-1990 season, she scored 100 points in the fist half of the game against South Torrance, and gave her team 102-24-halftime lead. By the time she was a sophomore in high school, she could dunk it in open court, but was not able to palm the ball. She was the teams high leading sorer and rebounder and led them to the 1989 California state championship. Her senior year, she developed into a top player in the country. She was then averaging 27 points per game, and 15 rebounds per game.
The WNBA was incorporated in1996 and commenced play in 1997. Lisa Leslie was drafted on January 22 by the Los Angeles Sparks as part of the Initial Allocation phase of the draft. She helped the Sparks make the playoff’s five consecutive times, but the team did not win WNBA title until 2001. In 2001 the Women’s Sports Foundation named Lisa the 2001 Sportswoman of the Year. On July 12, 2002 Leslie became the first woman to dunk the ball in the WNBA game. That same year she became the first WNBA player to score over 3,000 total career points. Two years later she became the first player to reach the 4,000-career point milestone. On August 11, 2009, Lisa Leslie became the first player to score 6,000 points in a career. Earlier that month, she was the first layer to reach 10,000 career PRA (points + rebounds + assists). Lisa Leslie announced her retirement effective at the end of the 2009 season on February 4, 2009. She finished her league records for points (6,263), rebounds (3,307) and PRA (10,444). Lisa Leslie is a beast…literally.
