{"id":466518,"date":"2026-02-10T20:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466518\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:17:10","slug":"black-history-month-player-spotlight-lise-leslie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466518\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month Player Spotlight: Lise Leslie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lisa Leslie entered a brand-new league in 1997 and became part of its defining moments from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leslie entered the WNBA after being selected 7th\u00a0overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in the inaugural\u00a0WNBA Draft in 1997. She took the floor in the WNBA\u2019s inaugural game on June 21, 1997, as the Los Angeles Sparks faced the New York Liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-209569\" class=\"wp-image-209569\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-1252211893-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"950\" height=\"950\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-209569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisa Leslie #9 of the Los Angeles Sparks goes for a dunk against the Orlando Miracle on May 22, 2001<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0In 2001,\u00a0Leslie\u00a0emerged\u00a0as one of the league\u2019s defining forces, earning MVP\u00a0honors\u00a0and leading the Sparks to their first WNBA championship. The following year she delivered a moment that changed the game,\u00a0becoming the first player in WNBA history to dunk. The Sparks built on that\u00a0history,\u00a0as Leslie went on to win\u00a0back\u2011to\u2011back championships in\u00a02001 and 2002\u00a0and two WNBA Finals MVPs. As her career progressed,\u00a0she\u00a0continued to\u00a0establish\u00a0her legacy, becoming the first player in league history to surpass 3,000, 4,000, and 6,000 career points.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When Lisa Leslie retired in 2009, she left the game as the WNBA\u2019s\u00a0All-Time leader in both points and rebounds, and a\u00a0pioneer whose 11-year career helped shape the league from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-209696\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Lisa_Accolades_4x5-5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1880\"  \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Leslie entered a brand-new league in 1997 and became part of its defining moments from day one.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-466518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}