{"id":643084,"date":"2026-05-14T17:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643084\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:50:08","slug":"lisa-leslie-moved-she-will-get-a-statue-outside-crytpo-com-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643084\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Leslie moved she will get a statue outside Crytpo.com Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie<\/a> didn\u2019t expect to ever get a statue outside Crypto.com Arena. After all, it had been 15 years since her jersey retirement and no other Sparks<\/a> player was featured among the Lakers and Kings heroes outside the area.<\/p>\n

After years of hearing from fans that she deserve to be immortalized, Leslie learned she would join Sue Bird in Seattle<\/a> as the second WNBA<\/a> player to be honored with a statue at a franchise\u2019s home arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I never had on my bucket list was a statue,\u201d Leslie told The Times on Thursday. \u201cI grew up seeing the statues of some of the amazing Lakers, so I\u2019m just really grateful to be alive and to be one of the first, especially in the WNBA for L.A. Sparks. It means a lot to me, and I\u2019m really hoping that our community will really rally around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sparks announced Thursday morning that Leslie will receive a statue to be unveiled during a ceremony on Sept. 20 before a game against the Portland Fire. <\/p>\n

During her 12-year career with the Sparks, Leslie won three WNBA titles and league MVP honors. She also won four Olympic gold medals. She was the first player in WNBA history to dunk in a game and her No. 9 jersey was retired<\/a> in 2010.<\/p>\n

She was one of the Sparks\u2019 original players in 1997 and is the franchise\u2019s career leader in points, rebounds, blocks, field goals, free throws, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, minutes and games played, and is third in the WNBA in blocks and double-doubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Lisa for nearly three decades and believe that she is beyond deserving of this incredible honor,\u201d fellow statue honoree and Lakers great Magic Johnson said in a news release. \u201cShe was the driving force behind bringing back-to-back championships to the Los Angeles Sparks franchise in 2000 and 2001, and Lisa\u2019s hard work and commitment has made her one of the best to ever play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, who is part the Sparks ownership group, accepted responsibility for the team\u2019s skid two years ago and promised to do more. The Sparks owners, who also own the Dodgers and Lakers, have responded to losing at a boom time in the WNBA by executing a coaching change, breaking ground on a new practice facility and installing the first Sparks statue outside Crypto.com Arena. <\/p>\n

\u201cLisa\u2019s legacy isn\u2019t just measured by championships and accolades, though; it\u2019s defined by the doors she opened and the standard she set for generations to come,\u201d Johnson said in the news release. \u201cMore than an athlete, she is a pioneer, a cultural icon and a force who elevated women\u2019s basketball to new heights. This statue celebrates her excellence, her leadership and the future she helped create, and it ensures her impact will forever be part of the fabric of this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie said that she noticed fans lobbying for her to get a statue beginning in 2019, and the timing for her and the Sparks felt right during the 30th anniversary season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt couldn\u2019t be better with the new [practice] facility coming, the new CBA, everything is aligning so properly,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s more perfect than it would have been a few years before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statue was created by sculptors Julie Rotblatt Amrany and Omri Amrany and will join 15 others outside of Crypto.com Arena, including Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya, Chick Hearn, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Luc Robitaille, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Bob Miller, Elgin Baylor, Dustin Brown, Kobe Bryant (2), Gigi Bryant and Pat Riley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope she looks good,\u201d Leslie said of the statue. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how hard it is to make a statue look good. \u2026 They helped me to be super specific about every little thing down to my earlobe and fingernail tip. So I\u2019m excited about all the little details that have been added that people can kind of find on their own as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie didn\u2019t expect to ever get a statue outside Crypto.com Arena. After all, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[14651,4553,46052,13408,5460,8326,6306,78561,10948,18523,17589,23629,99,26018,434,2394],"class_list":["post-643084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-block","tag-career","tag-com-arena","tag-crypto","tag-game","tag-johnson","tag-lakers","tag-leslie","tag-lisa","tag-lisa-leslie","tag-rebound","tag-sparks","tag-sports","tag-statue","tag-wnba","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}