Lisa Leslie

American basketball center and three-time WNBA MVP who dominated women's basketball, becoming the first player to dunk in a WNBA game and winning four Olympic g

Lisa Deshaun Leslie was born on 7 July 1972 in Gardena, California, to Christine Leslie, who started her own trucking business after her husband, Walter, a semi-professional basketball player, left the family while she was pregnant. Standing over six feet tall by middle school, Leslie had no exposure to basketball until a classmate invited her to join a team in junior high, hoping simply to make friends. Leslie starred at Morningside High School in Inglewood, once scoring 101 points in a single half of a game, and was named the top female high school player in the nation before starring at USC, where she was a unanimous All-American by her senior year. Leslie won four Olympic gold medals with Team USA between 1996 and 2008, and became a cornerstone of the WNBA from its 1997 inaugural season with the Los Angeles Sparks, leading the team to back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002. In 2001, she became the first player to win the regular season, All-Star Game, and Finals MVP awards all in the same season. On 30 July 2002, Leslie became the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game, a moment widely regarded as one of the most significant in the league's history. She retired in 2009 as the WNBA's all-time leading scorer at the time, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, later joining the Sparks' ownership group as the first former player to do so.

Dominant post player with excellent shooting range and shot-blocking ability

WNBA pioneer and Hall of Famer who helped establish women's professional basketball

• Olympic Gold 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008
• WNBA Champion 2001, 2002
• WNBA MVP 2001, 2004, 2006