{"id":855781,"date":"2026-09-21T19:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855781\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T19:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:42:12","slug":"the-sparks-honor-lisa-leslie-with-a-bronze-statue-outside-the-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/855781\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sparks honor Lisa Leslie with a bronze statue outside the arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Lisa Leslie left her mark on the Los Angeles Sparks franchise as one of the top players in its history.<\/p>\n

The organization honored her Sunday with a bronze statue<\/a> outside the arena, immortalizing the WNBA great.<\/p>\n

She became the 16th person honored with a statue in Star Plaza in a ceremony that featured Magic Johnson, Candace Parker and Michael Cooper and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am beyond happy with how beautiful The First Lady looks because they listened to me,\u201d the three-time MVP said. \u201cShe has her lipstick on, she has on earrings, she has my family\u2019s names on my bracelets, which probably people can\u2019t see because she\u2019s so big. It\u2019s gorgeous, and I just love that she has her ponytail, and when little girls walk around and get a chance to see it, they see a woman, The First Lady statue out there. That just means so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie, who starred for the Sparks from 1997-2009, is the first Sparks player to be honored with a statue. The 11-foot statue with a 4 1\/2 foot base depicts Leslie\u2019s signature dunk that was the first in WNBA history.<\/p>\n

\"LOSLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA \u2013 SEPTEMBER 20: Hall of Fame basketball player Lisa Leslie poses next to her newly unveiled statue prior to the game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Portland Fire at Crypto.com Arena on September 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and\/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Griffin C. Hooper\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, she\u2019s cute,\u201d Leslie said of the statue when it was unveiled. \u201cI was so worried. I did not want to look like a linebacker up here. But she\u2019s cute. I wanted to make sure that this statue was a perfect blend of fearlessness and the competitor that I was and I am and I\u2019ll always be. But also \u2026 I wore my ribbons, I had my nails polished, which y\u2019all can\u2019t see, but the girl got her polish on because I never wanted the boys or the men to think that I was a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leslie helped the Sparks win consecutive titles in 2001 and 2002.<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Lisa Leslie left her mark on the Los Angeles Sparks franchise as one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[23758,18523,361351,99,434],"class_list":["post-855781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-la-sparks","tag-lisa-leslie","tag-lisa-leslie-statue","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855781","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=855781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}