As a child who enjoys sports, you always dream about playing for your hometown. If you work hard, those dreams may become a reality. The Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie is proof of this, as she not only played college basketball in her hometown but was also drafted by the Los Angles Sparks.
In her first middle school basketball practice, the players were asked to divide into two groups which were left-handed and right-handed for layup drills. Being the only left-handed player on the team encouraged Lisa Leslie to work on the drills with her right hand. It definitely worked in her favor as she became ambidextrous, so hearing this story tells me how much Lisa really wanted to be great. The story gets even better as in the eighth grade Lisa Leslie transferred to a junior high school that did not have a women's basketball team. Most would just give up, but she decided to play with the boy's basketball team and was just as dominant as before.
The domination continued as she went to Morningside Highschool, receiving tons of scholarship offers from various colleges because of her extraordinary abilities on the basketball court. In her senior year she lead her team to the state championship averaging a whopping 27 points per game and 10 rebounds there was no doubt she was going to play for a highly-touted university in the fall. After much speculation about where she would go to college, Lisa preferred to stay close to home by selecting the University of Southern California. She remained very dominant throughout her four years at USC averaging 20PPG while earning some of the country's highest honors including Naismith College Player of the Year and USBWA Women's National Player of the Year.
After consideration, the Women's Basketball Association was founded in 1996 and led the way for Lisa Leslie to be drafted in 1997 by the Los Angles Sparks. The stars lined up perfectly as she made an immediate impact by helping the Sparks achieve five straight postseason appearances. The biggest moment of all was in 2001 when Lisa and Sparks captured the WNBA championship. The following year, Lisa achieved the unthinkable by becoming the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game, and to cap it all, she won her second championship. In my opinion, she is superwoman, in the NBA Shaquille O'Neal has been considered superman for his domination in the NBA. Lisa Leslie was also dominant as she smashed records in the Sparks organization that could never be touched. The things that Lisa Leslie has been able to accomplish are outstanding and as fans, we should appreciate and enjoy her game to a great extent.
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