Lisa Leslie

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Lisa Leslie bigraphy, stories - Basketball player

Lisa Leslie : biography

07 July 1972 –

Lisa Deshaun Leslie-Lockwood (born July 7, 1972) is a former American professional women’s 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 the 1997 inaugural WNBA draft, she followed a superb career at the 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. Leslie, a 6’5" center, is the first player to dunk in a WNBA game. She was considered a pioneer and cornerstone of the league during her WNBA career. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history.

USA Basketball

Leslie was a member of the USA team competing at the 1991 World University Games held in Sheffield, England. Leslie was the second leading scorer on the USA squad, averaging 13.0 points per game, and helped the Tara VanDerveer coached team to an 8–0 record and the gold medal.

She competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1992 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei for the first time since 1987.

WNBA

The WNBA was incorporated in 1996 and commenced play in 1997. 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 playoffs five consecutive times, but the team did not win a WNBA title until 2001. That year, Leslie was named the 2001 Sportswoman of the Year (in the team category) by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

On July 12, 2002, Leslie became the first woman to dunk the ball in a WNBA game. That same year she became the first WNBA player to score over 3,000 total career points and contributed to the Sparks winning their second straight world championship that season. Two seasons later, she became the first player to reach the 4,000-career point milestone. Leslie remains the Sparks’ career scoring and rebounding leader, as well as the all time league leader in rebounds. On August 11, 2009, Leslie became the first player to score 6,000 points in a career. Earlier that month she was the first player to reach 10,000 career PRA (points + rebounds + assists), a statistic fundamental to the WNBA "Pick One Challenge" fantasy game.

Lisa Leslie announced her retirement effective at the end of the 2009 season on February 4, 2009. WNBA.com, February 4, 2009 The Sparks held a farewell ceremony for Leslie during their final home game of the season in September. She finished holding the league records for points (6,263), rebounds (3,307) and PRA (10,444). In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.http://www.wnba.com/allstar/2011/top15_072311.html

WNBA award years
MVP 2001, 2004, 2006
WNBA Titles 2001, 2002
Finals MVP 2001, 2002
All-WNBA First Team 1997, 2000–2004, 2006
All-WNBA Second Team 1998, 1999, 2005
All-Star Game MVP 1999, 2001, 2002
All-Star Games 1999–2003, 2005, 2006, 2009
All-Decade Team 1997–2006
Defensive Player of the Year 2004, 2008
All-Defensive First Team 2006
All-Defensive Second Team 2005
Player of the Week 15 (league record)

International and Olympic

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.