Lisa Leslie's 'First Lady' Statue Unveiled at L.A — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Lisa Leslie became the first Los Angeles Sparks player and 16th person overall honored with a bronze statue at Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena, unveiled in a Sunday ceremony featuring Lakers legends Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, James Worthy and Byron Scott, plus former teammate Candace Parker.
- The 11-foot statue, named 'The First Lady,' sits atop a 4½-foot base and was sculpted by Omri Amrany and Julie Rotblatt Amrany; Leslie is the second woman honored in Star Plaza, joining Gigi Bryant, who died alongside her father Kobe Bryant in the 2020 helicopter crash.
- Over a 12-year WNBA career with the Sparks, Leslie was a three-time league MVP, led the team to championships in 2001 and 2002, and in 1997 became the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game before her 2015 election to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
- After winning the 1994 national title at USC, Leslie negotiated her own contract with Nike — a landmark for women athletes — then signed with Wilhemina Models ahead of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics before joining the Sparks for their inaugural 1997 season.
- Sparks coach Michael Cooper recalled Leslie arriving before practice to drill post moves borrowed from Worthy, Johnson and Hakeem Olajuwon, and said she kept training 'all the way up until her eighth month in pregnancy.'
Why it matters: Leslie's placement makes her the first Sparks player — and second woman after Gigi Bryant — in Star Plaza, linking the WNBA's origin era to L.A.'s broader basketball canon. Her pre-1997 résumé — a self-negotiated Nike deal, modeling contract, 1994 NCAA title — demonstrated crossover market appeal before the league had ever played a game, a template the current generation now operates within.
Ask SkimNews
